


Motherly Love

by snazzinox



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-06
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-03-21 12:22:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 34,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3692133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snazzinox/pseuds/snazzinox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Narcissa Malfoy was the mother that had helped Harry Potter at King's Cross Station on September 1st instead of Molly Weasley? After all, the Malfoys are apt to latch onto anything remotely useful to them and use it. And if she wants another son, then who is anyone to deny her that? After all, how much could that possibly change?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introductions

Narcissa sighed for a moment, looking around the entrance hall of the Malfoy Manor, waiting for her son, Draco, to finish dragging her husband out of the bathroom, where he was undoubtedly fixing his hair for the thousandth time. She didn't blame him, their status in Wizarding society was demanding, and so they must look utterly perfect whenever in the public eye. Also, Lucius enjoyed looking nice, they all did, as it was quite the confidence boost.

"Sorry about that."

Narcissa just smiled as her son and husband came down the stairs, Draco clearly trying to contain his excitement. Lucius kissed his wife before the two linked arms, Draco taking his mother's free hand, looking around at the Manor for the last time in a while, holding onto his trunk.

"I suppose we're ready, then?"

"Yes."

Narcissa nodded, and as one unit, the three Malfoys turned on their heel, and with naught but a soft  _pop!_ , they were gone.

_**§§§§§§** _

Harry Potter was having an awful time, he really was. He was sat on his trunk, in staring at the wall between Platforms 9 and 10 at King's Cross Station, trying to will another platform into place. He huffed, trying to remember what it was that Hagrid had called his relatives... _Muggles._  Harry growled, standing up, pulling his trunk up onto a trolley and dragging it back a few feet to angrily stare at the wall from another angle, growling under his breath.

"Goddamn Muggles."

It felt good to blame someone else, even if Harry knew that it wasn't his aunt and uncle's fault that he didn't know how to get onto Platform 9 3/4. Hagrid's, maybe. After all, the gargantuan man  _surely_  could have at least given Harry some hint as to how to make it onto the train.

 _Unless he was an absolute idiot,_  Harry mused.

As soon as the thought made its way into Harry's brain, he immediately felt bad. After all, he had brought Harry a birthday cake, and he had been nothing but kind. Even if he had somehow managed to forget an absolutely crucial bit of information to Harry.

As Harry contemplated moving to yet another angle to glare at the brick wall, a finger tapped on his shoulder. He jumped, suddenly realising that he must be in someone's way.

"Are you alright?"

Harry whirled around, staring up at the woman before him in surprise. She was looking at him in distinct amusement, an eyebrow arched at him. Harry suddenly felt tiny in her presence, every inch of her clearly demanding respect. His thoughts whirled back to the boy he had met in Madame Malkin's, and his eyes widened in recognition, a sigh of relief leaving him.

"Oh, thank heavens, you're a witch. Can you help me?"

Her expression changed slightly, and she looked at her son, who was indeed the boy Harry had met, standing beside a man whom he bore a striking resemblance to.

"Draco, why don't you explain?"

The blond boy stepped forwards, pausing slightly.

"What's your name?"

Harry blinked at the oddly direct question before brushing it off. He'd answer anything to get their help at this point.

"Harry Potter. I didn't get yours at Diagon Alley?"

"Draco Malfoy. These are my parents, Lucius, and Narcissa. You...don't know how to get onto the platform?"

Harry politely nodded at Draco's parents, who offered him small smiles before he answered Draco's question.

"No, I don't. I...Muggles. Not much help teaching me about anything."

The more Harry thought about how little he really knew about the world he was about to enter, the angrier he got, until he was gripping onto his trolley so tight that his knuckles were white.

"They didn't even tell me how my parents died, they told me nothing. I know absolutely nothing."

He didn't notice Narcissa shoot a look at her husband, but Draco just stepped forwards, tugging along his own trolley.

"Well, it's quite simple, you just walk through that wall. The platform is on the other side."

Harry stared at the wall despairingly, not knowing how he didn't try even touching the wall once.

"That's it."

Draco nodded affirmingly. "That's it."

Harry huffed, grumbling as he stared at the wall.

"Of course. The one thing I don't try. Apart from dynamite, that is."

The Malfoys ignored his mumbling, Lucius placing his hand on Draco's shoulder as they began walking towards the barrier. Narcissa rested her hand on Harry's back, and Harry's cheeks burned at how oddly comforting he found it, entertaining the fantasy that it was his own mother sending him off for only a brief second.

"You might want to close your eyes," she murmured, and Harry squeezed his eyes shut, opening them as new noise assaulted his ears. He did his best not to gawk as they joined with Lucius and Draco, who were clearly waiting for the woman of the family.

"Alright, there?"

Harry nodded, trying to lift his heavy trunk to load it onto the train.

"Yeah, thanks."

Draco hopped up onto the carriage gracefully, grabbing the end of Harry's trunk, pulling as Harry pushed.

"There you go."

He got down, and they switched places to get Draco's trunk onto the train, Draco hugging his parents and promising to write before he got on board, looking at Harry.

"You'd do best to stick with me, I suppose. You say you're clueless, I'm not. I can help."

Harry let out a slow breath, not an idiot by any means. "Sounds like my best option, yeah. So, where are we sitting?"

Draco was already moving, and Harry took larger steps to catch up.

"I should have some friends up this way...yes. In here. Now," Draco whirled around, almost causing Harry to collide with him as he abruptly stopped in front of a compartment. "I'm guessing that you'd rather stay out of the public eye as much as possible. Do  _not_  show your scar, and don't give your last name unless someone gives you theirs first. In example, if I simply introduced myself as Draco, you'd give me Harry. If I said Draco  _Malfoy_ , you'd give me your last name. Got it?"

Harry nodded, remembering the ruckus that occurred back at The Leaky Cauldron. Draco smiled slightly, opening a compartment door and dragging Harry along in by his shirt sleeve, closing the door almost immediately.

"Right, change out of those dreadful clothes before I introduce you to anyone, for Merlin's sake. It's almost embarrassing."

Harry snorted, turning away from Draco, pulling out his school robes, happily changing.

"You're one to complain, they're  _my_ clothes."

"If you could even call them clothes, what are they, clothes for elephants, maybe?"

Harry laughed, and Draco moved forwards to adjust his tie. Or, rather, redo it, as Harry had completely mucked it up. As soon as Draco had unceremoniously dumped Harry's clothes out of the window, into a conveniently placed trashcan, they moved up a few compartments, where a few others their age were. Harry noticed that they all gave off the same... _vibe_  that Draco did.

"Right, Harry, this is Pansy Parkinson, Blaise Zabini, Tracey Davis, Gregory Goyle, Vincent Crabbe, Daphne Greengrass, Millicent Bulstrode, and Theodore Nott."

Harry waved somewhat awkwardly, as being stuck in a cupboard under some stairs for most of his life didn't exactly give him a chance to cultivate his social skills.

"Hello."

He was given some smiles, and nods from others, and they all scooted over to allow him and Draco space.

"Out of curiosity, are you Harry..."

Harry nodded, settling back into his seat after putting his trunk away.

"Potter, yeah. Unfortunately, I know next to nothing about everything because I was left with Muggles."

Everyone in the compartment became visibly disgusted, and Harry found himself suddenly swamped with questions about how he ended up there, and how they treated them, and if he wanted to leave them. He simply closed his eyes, sighing.

"I have no clue how I ended up there, they hate me, absolutely hate me, and I want nothing more than to leave. I didn't even know anything about magic until a month ago. I thought I was some sort of freak."

He jumped as a book was dumped onto his lap, followed by more books.

"Wha-"

Pansy plopped a sixth book onto his lap, folding her hands in her lap.

"We can't have the Potter heir knowing nothing about the Wizarding World, that's almost blasphemy. Blaise?"

Blaise hopped off of his seat, handing Pansy a thick book.

"Might put him to sleep."

Harry examined the cover, sighing.

"Politics, really?"

"They're important, Potter. If you want to prove yourself, you've got to know your stuff."

He nodded, quite liking the sound of that.

"Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. I need to actually do things so I'm not just a name. Thanks. I'll read these and give them back."

As he stowed the books into his trunk, the compartment shifted from talking about Harry's home life and the best way to educate him to different topics, such as Quidditch, which Draco explained to Harry as the latest match was discussed. Crabbe helpfully handed over a magazine entirely on the sport, and Harry looked through it, quite interested. It wasn't until there was a knock on the compartment door that he was jolted out of his reading. Goyle opened the door, and a girl with bushy hair stepped in, looking around at the crowd inside, a chubby, short, blond boy, who was clearly mid emotional breakdown standing somewhat behind her.

"Have any of you seen a toad? Neville here's lost his."

Draco sighed, clearly annoyed that his explanation of just why the Magpies were the best Quidditch team was interrupted.

" _No_ , as we've been in here the entire ride. Besides, the only thing a toad is useful for is potion ingredients, so if I see it, I'm more likely to cut it up than to hand it over."

Harry hid his mouth behind the magazine to try and hide his laugh, clearing his throat as the girl looked at him, shooting him a glare before she turned around and stomped off, dragging the boy along with her to badger another compartment about his missing toad. Draco rolled his eyes, sighing.

"Where was I? Oh, yes..."


	2. Welcome to Hogwarts

"We'll be arriving shortly, get ready, alright?"

The Hufflepuff prefect that had stuck her head into the compartment disappeared as quickly as she had appeared, and Draco sighed in relief, looking out the dark window.

"Oh, thank Merlin, I need space."

"Tired of us?"

Draco rolled his eyes at Theodore, stretching out his legs for a moment.

"Of course not, I've been stuck with you lot for much longer than a few hours before."

Pansy elbowed Harry in the side, and he jumped slightly, looking around and closing the book he had been reading.

"Yeah? What's wrong?"

Draco smiled slightly as the train came to a halt.

"Nothing, we're here."

Harry nodded, and they slowly filed out of the train, Harry stowing the book on recent Wizarding history in his robes as he followed Draco.

"Firs' years this way, firs' years this way!"

Harry paused for a second, slightly annoyed again just at hearing Hagrid's voice. He took a slow breath, trying to calm himself down, because he was  _here_ , and so it didn't really matter that the oddly large man had forgotten how to tell Harry how to even get onto Platform 9 3/4. The large group split up, the girls getting into one boat, Theodore and Blaise getting into another with two boys they seemed to recognise, leaving Harry, Draco, Vincent, and Gregory to another boat.

"Greg, stop shaking the boat, you're gonna swamp us."

He just laughed, but stopped rocking the boat. Draco sighed, shaking his head. Harry was busy staring at the castle slowly appearing before them as the boats moved, all fairy tale looking, like something out of someone's dreams.

"Close your mouth, you'll swallow a pixie."

Draco shut Harry's mouth, which had actually been hanging open. Harry huffed, crossing his arms, firmly clenching his jaw to prevent looking like a fool. That was the last thing he wanted, he was already enough of a phenomenon in the Wizarding World, he didn't need people commenting on his reaction towards seeing Hogwarts for the first time and making fun of him for it.

"Oh, thank Merlin."

Vincent almost leaped out of the boat, the other three laughing at the green tint to his face. The large boy was apparently quite prone to seasickness, which hadn't been helped much by Gregory constantly shaking the boat just to agitate him until Harry and Draco were complaining that they were about to be covered in vomit unless he stopped. They entered the castle, and were instructed by a strict looking woman with a tight bun to look their best before the Sorting started. Draco immediately checked Harry's tie again before deeming it sufficient and leaning over to talk to Blaise for a moment.

A redheaded boy was talking quite loud, and Harry glanced over at him, somewhat interested in what he was saying.

"It's some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot..."

Draco scoffed, looking at Harry.

"You put a hat on your head, that's all," he muttered, looking the redheaded boy up and down in disdain before crossing his arms and directing his attention towards him. "You're a Weasley, aren't you?"

The redhead turned around, crossing his arms, mirroring Draco.

"Yes, I am, why do you ask?"

Draco frowned, nodding his head towards the boy's slightly ragged robes.

"It was painfully obvious between the hair, freckles, and dreadful clothes. Tell me, has your mother decided to pop another carrot out yet even though you can't afford it?"

Harry shifted slightly, uncomfortable with Draco's behaviour, but he didn't want to be on the receiving end, having been there far too much already in his short life due to Dudley merely existing. So, he waited until they stopped spitting out insults at each other to ask.

"What's wrong with the Weasleys?"

"Blood-traitors."

Harry furrowed his eyebrows, not understanding what he had said or why exactly he had spat it out with the same amount of courtesy that one would give a swear word.

"What do you mean?"

Draco sighed, speaking quieter as the patched and worn hat on the three legged stool in front of the crowd of first years began to sing.

"I'll explain when we're eating, alright?"

Harry nodded before realising that Draco was expecting them to be in the same House. And since Draco expected to be in Slytherin, he clearly expected that Harry would be as well. Harry took a slow breath, remembering all the bad that Hagrid had said to him about the House in Diagon Alley. Then again, how could he trust the word of a man who didn't even remember to tell an eleven year old how to make the train so he could get to school. Surely if he had forgotten that, he had forgotten good things about the House.

"Hey, all of the Houses have traits, right?"

Draco nodded, in the midst of clapping as Millicent was Sorted into Slytherin.

"Yeah. It's usually just boiled down to two, but there's loads for each house."

"What are Slytherin's?"

Draco grinned, politely clapping for a Ravenclaw girl.

"Slytherin House embodies cunning, ambition, leadership, resourcefulness, cleverness, self-preservation, determination, supporting each other, and power. Great, or what?"

Harry blinked, nodding and clapping. "Yeah, that sounds absolutely brilliant. Much better than 'There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin.'"

Draco scowled, shaking his head.

"That's a load of bull, who told you that?"

"Hagrid, the man who took me to Diagon Alley and took us across on the boats just now."

Draco nodded before clapping Harry on the shoulder.

"Right, well see you later."

"Malfoy, Draco!"

Draco walked up towards the stool, sitting. Professor McGonagall had barely lowered the Sorting Hat onto his head when it yelled out "SLYTHERIN!" to the room. Harry grinned, clapping before growing antsy the closer and closer his name was to being called, until, "Potter, Harry!"  
The Hall erupted into murmurs that grew in volume until he sat down on the stool, the Hat being placed on his head. Harry's first thought was that they really ought to use a smaller hat, since eleven year olds were being Sorted, not full grown adults. A soft chuckle sounded in his head, and he flinched in surprise before relaxing, realising that it was only the Hat.

 _Mr Potter...Alright, let's have a look here..._ Harry stayed utterly still as the Hat seemed to search through his mind, making soft "hm"s and "ah"s as it went.  _Hmm...difficult, very difficult. Plenty of courage I see, not a bad mind, either. There's talent, oh yes, and a thirst to prove yourself. But where to put you?_

 _I don't really mind any way._ Harry thought back, hoping the Hat could hear his response.

 _Well, it seems you have friends already. And in Slytherin. What a fit that could be. You could be great, you know. Its all here in your head. And Slytherin will help you on your way to greatness! There's no doubt about that!_  The Hat seemed to be almost teasing Harry, and Harry's fingers gripped tighter at the stool under him.

_If I'll be great, then just put me there, clearly it's the best option if I can do things there._

"SLYTHERIN!"

The Hall was silent for a moment before the Slytherin table erupted into applause, the other Houses politely clapping, with clearly sour expressions on their faces as Harry walked off towards the silver and green clad table, Draco having Vincent scoot over so Harry could sit between them. The Sorting seemed to go much faster now that Harry wasn't waiting for his turn, and once Blaise joined them at the table, Dumbledore stood to speak, but Draco was already speaking to Harry in a soft voice.

"Right, so a blood-traitor is a pureblood with an obscene fascination and love for Muggles. The Weasley Head, Arthur Weasley, actually runs a department in the Ministry of Magic called the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office."

"Pureblood?"

Draco nodded, putting food onto his plate as he spoke.

"Yes, your blood status is based off of how many of your grandparents were witches or wizards. A Mudblood,  _Muggleborn_ / is the politically correct term to be using," Draco rolled his eyes, setting about cutting his steak as Harry reached for some potatoes. "are children of two Muggles, so they have no magical grandparents. A half-blood, like you, has two or three. Now, a pureblood has all four grandparents as wizarding folk. The longer you've been a pureblood, the better. Now, half-bloods are necessary nowadays to prevent, you know...mutations."  
Harry made a face, now understanding why some of the Slytherins around him almost reeked of money, but also looked like they'd been hit by a frying pan repeatedly.

"So, if I had a kid with another half-blood, or a pureblood, they'd be a pureblood?"

Draco nodded, patting Harry's back.

"Good, you're getting it. Now eat, will you, you're thin as a stick, the draft in this castle is going to snap you in half."

Harry shot a half hearted glare at the boy before digging in until he was full by the time that the dessert was gone. Dumbledore introduced the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, a nervous, twitchy looking man with an oddly large turban before going off on a list of precautions such as to stay out of the Forbidden Forest and some corridor on the third floor that Harry didn't care about. All that he really wanted was a night of sleep, even if it was in the dungeons. Eventually, they were rounded up by a prefect, who led them down to the Slytherin Common Room. They were ushered into lines by year, and a pale, thin man with billowing robes swept into the room, schedules in hand. He began silently distributing them to the prefects, who handed them along to the students.

"Everyone but the first years may go up to bed now, you know the rules already. If you have forgotten, they will be on your bed."

They left quietly, and Harry stared up at the man before them with apprehension. He handed a stack of parchment to Pansy, who took one, passing the remaining sheets down until Harry got the last one, looking down at it curiously as the man spoke.

"If you do not know me, I am Professor Severus Snape, the Head of Slytherin House. I am the Potions Professor, and I expect each and every one of you to follow these simple rules I have given you, or else there will be consequences."

_**Rules for Slytherin House Students** _

_1\. Your things shall be neat at all times._  
2\. You shall not be late to your classes.  
3\. If you have a problem with one of your Housemates, you may only take it up with them in here, with Professor Snape present.  
4\. You shall not argue with a Housemate outside of here. Slytherin House is targeted enough as it is, you must be seen as a unit in the public eye.  
5\. If you have below an A in one of your classes, you must see Professor Snape for help.  
6\. If you absolutely must break a school rule, make sure you are not caught, or you will be punished doubly.  
7\. You must be present for roll call. Days when roll call is required will be posted on the bulletin board.

"Are there any questions?"

No one raised their hand, and Professor Snape nodded.

"You may go to bed now. I will be in my office down the hall if needed."

He left the Common Room, and Harry sighed softly as the boys climbed into their beds, distinguished by whose trunk was at the foot of which bed.

"He seems quite scary. Am I the only one who got that vibe?"

Draco just laughed, shaking his head.

"You'll get used to it, he's always like that. Go to sleep, will you?"

Vincent turned out the lights, being closest to the switch, and Harry pulled his covers over his body, closing his eyes, almost immediately falling asleep.

_**§§§§§§** _

"Oi, Potter, get up!"

Harry groaned as Draco's pillow flew the distance between their beds, going through his emerald curtains and hitting the dark haired boy in the face. Harry shoved his glasses onto his face before sitting up and throwing the pillow right back into the young Malfoy's face. Draco stared at him in shock, and Harry just grinned victoriously, getting dressed and heading up to breakfast with the rest of the first years. Harry had barely even poured milk into his cereal before feathers began to fall from the ceiling, and people casually covered their breakfast as owls descended upon the tables, most carrying packages. An eagle owl landed before Draco, and the blond reached forwards, untying the basket and letters from its leg. Harry handed the large owl a piece of bacon, which it gobbled down. Draco sighed as he did so, shaking his head.

"Great, between you and my parents, I'm gonna have the fattest owl here."

Harry just laughed, stroking the owl's head, absentmindedly wondering how Hedwig would get on with him. Draco handed him an envelope, opening his own.

"Here, this is yours."

Harry stared down at it in surprise, but there was no doubt about it, "Harry" was elegantly printed on it. So, he opened it, pulling out the parchment inside. It was only a short note, yet it made him feel oddly warm and happy inside.

_'Harry-_

_I hope your train ride went well, I remember how long it was when I went to Hogwarts. I was told that you were Sorted into Slytherin along with Draco, good on you! I just wanted to congratulate you and see how you were doing, as I doubted your relatives would. Make sure Draco shares some of his sweets with you, and I'll send you your own basket tomorrow._

_Have a lovely day,_

_-Narcissa'_

A smile grew on Harry's face, and he looked at Draco.

"Hey, don't eat everything, your mum told you to share."

Draco sighed, passing the basket over to Harry so that they could go through it together, eating various things before becoming part of the trading system at the Slytherin table, passing over a couple of croissants to Tracey in return for a cinnamon roll, a fourth year giving them a chocolate muffin for their blueberry one, as her mother never remembered that she was on a diet.

Between trading, and Harry and Draco themselves eating, the basket was mostly empty by the time that they headed back to their dorm for their books before rushing off to Charms. Professor Flitwick was a tiny man that Draco swore was part goblin. The most amusing part of class was when he was doing roll call and called Harry's name before squeaking and falling off of his stack of books, two Hufflepuffs having to help him back up onto them so he could continue. Draco managed to get his feather to levitate first, although Harry decided to retaliate against his new friend's playful gloating by bouncing his own feather off the top of Draco's head repeatedly once he had figured out how to do the Levitation Charm himself.

The diminutive professor apparently found it quite hilarious, and fell off his books again before awarding them both ten points, along with everyone else who successfully managed to do the charm.

Herbology was much messier, what with all of the dirt, fertiliser, and plants everywhere. Professor Sprout only introduced the plants they were going to be working with this year, but as Harry spent most of the time swatting an overly friendly plant off of him as he tried to pay attention, Draco snickering every time he smacked the plant. Harry just aimed a kick his way every once in a while, resolving to switch spots tomorrow so that Draco was the one forced to deal with the touchy plant while Harry could laugh at him instead.


	3. A Mother's Concern

Narcissa sighed to herself, reflecting on how the young Potter heir had looked back at the train station. He was just so...thin. Dangerously so, in her opinion. And, as a mother, it just didn't sit right with her.

"You're awfully quiet. Missing Draco?"

Her head lifted from where she was intently staring at her eggs, almost surprised that Lucius had spoken. She hummed, trying to figure out a way to phrase her thoughts.

"Yes, but that wasn't what was on my mind."

Lucius set down his knife and fork, clearly worried about what was troubling his wife. "What is it then?"

Narcissa paused again, swiftly untying the newspaper from the owl that had just flown in.

"Harry Potter."

Lucius frowned, not following. "Yes, we saw him on Monday, and you've been sending him as much food as Draco since then. Is something wrong with him?"

Narcissa sighed, flipping through the  _Prophet_  until she found the inevitable article on the boy in question, holding the paper up towards Lucius so he could see the picture of Harry.

"When was the last time Draco was that thin?"

Lucius furrowed his eyebrows as he scanned the picture, taking in how Harry was almost skin and bones, hardly any meat on the lad.

"Two summers ago, when he got extremely sick and couldn't keep anything down," he finally conceded.

Narcissa nodded, setting the paper back down.

"Do you remember the clothes he was in? They looked like they could fit someone ten times his size."

Lucius finally reached her train of thought, and shook his head.

"No, you can't possibly believe... Maybe his relatives are just poor? Who is it he lives with again?"

Narcissa almost snarled as she stood, pushing in her chair.

" _Muggles_."

She turned, walking off towards her office, sitting in her chair and taking out the letters she had received from Harry, scanning them. They were all very polite and excited, happily talking about his classes and what he and Draco had done that day. The boy talked about everything - everything but his home life. Narcissa had asked, but all she had gotten on the subject was "My aunt and uncle don't like magic, so they never talked to me about it. We mainly stay out of each others way, it works better like that." Then he'd talk about what Draco was teaching him to make up for his ignorance on Wizarding affairs.  
Narcissa sighed, picking up a book entitled "The Rise and Fall of You-Know-Who", flipping to the section on Harry, but finding no mention of his Muggle relatives or his upbringing at all. As much as she was hoping that Harry wasn't a case of child abuse by Muggles, the thought was becoming more and more prevalent in her mind.

 _It'd probably be best to check out their house myself,_  she thought.  _Just so that way I'll know what kind of conditions he's at least living in. He could just be unable to gain weight and like big clothes, but..._

She pushed that thought out of her mind, instead resolving to visit Harry's house.

"Dobby."

The house elf appeared with a emcrack!/em, looking up at her.

"Mistress?"

She finished signing the paper she was writing on, handing it to the elf. "Take this to the Child Placement Agency department at the Ministry, and make sure you come back with my response. Also, pick up as many books on Harry Potter as you can find and bring them to me."

"Dobby will do that."

She nodded, and the elf Disapparated. She stood, walking to her room to get ready for her meeting with the head of the CPA department. She didn't have any doubts about the fact that she would have her wish for a meeting granted, not after all of the work she had done with them and Lucius' "kind donations" to the Ministry.

Surely enough, as soon as she finished dressing, Dobby was back, with a large stack of books and a note in hand, inviting her over to the department in a few hours. Narcissa nodded, having Dobby take the books to her study so she could look through them for the missing ten years of Harry Potter's life with the Muggles.

"Is Mistress needing Dobby for anything else?"

Narcissa spoke without looking at the elf, now perusing the first book on the stack. "No, go back to your regular duties."

Dobby bowed his head, disappearing once more as Narcissa began to go through the books before discarding each one, as they lacked the information she wanted. They all simply said something along the lines of "Harry Potter's whereabouts are now unknown, but the Wizarding community has been assured of his safety."

Narcissa sighed, rubbing her temples before standing and walking over to her office's fireplace to Floo down to the Ministry. She was early, but she had no reason to continue dawdling in her home, looking over the useless books again. She made her way down to the CPA office. She was immediately met by the department head, Ian Fife, who was in charge of the CPA of magical Britain.

"Narcissa, early as always."

She simply smiled, shaking his hand as he held his out to her. "No use making an appointment for a meeting if I'm going to be late."

He just laughed warmly, retreating into his office. Narcissa sat down in a cushioned chair before his desk as he fluttered around his office, offering her various refreshments, all of which she refused.

"I'm afraid I'm not here on a social call, you see."

Fife immediately sat down, all business, pulling out a folder for a new report, quill in hand. Narcissa smiled, absentmindedly admiring the man's dedication to his job.

"What's the problem? Is it Draco, are you adopting, did you see something?" He continued rattling off a list of possible concerns, only stopping at Narcissa putting down the newspaper she had been showing Lucius that morning. He picked it up, raising an eyebrow at her. "Harry Potter?"

She nodded, pointing to the picture of the boy.

"How often do you see an eleven year old that skinny when they aren't sick? Furthermore, I met him at the train station, where he couldn't figure out how to get onto Platform 9 3/4. He said that his Muggle guardians taught him nothing about the Wizarding World.  _Harry Potter_  knows nothing about his world. I've been keeping correspondence with him over this past week, as he's become friends with my son, but he avoids all of my questions about his family, simply saying that his relatives don't like magic. As a mother, this worries me, so I thought I would at least check out his house. That's where I need your help," she explained, rather calmly.

Fife nodded, immediately wheeling his chair over to a large filing cabinet, opening a drawer and pulling out a file, flicking through it before frowning.

"Is there a problem?"

He nodded, looking up and passing over the folder.

"I can't find any papers about Harry Potter being adopted. Guardianship papers, maybe..." Fife began muttering to himself as he dug through several more filing cabinets before wheeling himself back to his desk, holding out a single slip of paper. "This is it."

Narcissa deftly took the paper from his fingers, examining it with a frown. "' _Harry Potter's guardianship has been turned over to his aunt and uncle, Petunia and Vernon Dursley, by order of the State. Due to protection purposes, their location shall be withheld._ ' I trust you can still get that for me?"

Fife nodded, already looking through a Muggle directory. "Yes, of course, just give me a few minutes."

Narcissa nodded, instead looking through the folders he had pulled out on Harry. Birth certificates, his first medical records, an estimation of his magical abilities (she nodded approvingly in seeing that he and Draco had the same score - a 19 out of 20 estimation), and a family tree. She scanned the last one, curious as to where she fell on it, knowing that all pureblood families were related. She hummed softly at seeing that they were closer than she had thought, being second cousins once removed, as Dorea Potter née Black was her great great aunt, and Harry's grandmother. Making Harry and Draco third cousins.

"I've got their address, which is what I assume you would like?"

Narcissa shook herself from her thoughts, nodding and taking the piece of parchment that Fife copied the address down onto. "Yes, thank you. If the place is...unsuitable, then I'll be back."

Fife nodded, and Narcissa quickly made her way down to the Ministry lobby, Disapparating back home to have Dobby bring her to the Dursley house. No one was home, so she simply let herself in, frowning at the first picture she saw.

"What, do they eat all of Harry's food for him?"

The boy pictured and his father were almost perfect circles, and Narcissa scoffed, moving on, confronted by pictures of the rotund boy all through the house. The mother was quite thin, reminding Narcissa of a horse the more she looked at the pictures. All the boy seemed to get from her was her blond hair, as he looked like his father apart from that. Narcissa made a disgusted sound before continuing to move through the house, noticing the complete absence of anything to do with Harry. Their son had two bedrooms, yet she couldn't find any evidence that another child lived in the house. It wasn't until she noticed a piece of paper hanging out from under the door of a cupboard under the stairs that she found any hint of Harry's existence with the Dursleys. All that was inside the cupboard was a ratty old mattress and a single lightbulb, the walls covered by crude drawings clearly done by a small child, "Harry" sloppily scribbled under one of them. The paper in her hands was a torn envelope that had come from a Hogwarts Acceptance Letter, clearly addressed to a Mr H Potter residing in "The Cupboard Under The Stairs".

"No. No, they can't treat a child like this, they couldn't have..." Narcissa's hands began to shake in fury, and her eyes swept the cupboard again before she slammed the door shut, whirling through the house again, desperately looking for a sign that Harry hadn't been mistreated the way he was, but when she discovered that the son's clothes were the same size as the clothes Harry had been wearing, she furiously Disapparated, determined to get Harry out of there, even if she had to kill the Dursleys herself, which she had half a mind to do. _ **  
**_


	4. A Mother's Concern Deepens

Harry and Draco's second month at Hogwarts was coming along much less interestingly than the first. The glamour of Hogwarts had worn off by now, even to Harry, and the amount of homework on mere theoretical work was starting to weigh them down. More than once, they complained about it, but never to teachers, lest they risk more work, especially from teachers like Professors McGonagall or Snape.

On the bright side, however, they were still receiving daily sweets from Narcissa every morning, along with letters, Draco's occasionally accompanied by notes from his father. Harry however, was happy just receiving a single line of text from the Malfoy matriarch, and so was thrilled every day when he received at least a full sheet of parchment with her response to his own letters, which were just as long. As Draco's letters home grew shorter as he had less to talk about, Harry's grew longer, happily discussing his daily life and ideas for his future that he had with Narcissa.

Oddly enough, she seemed to take an interest in his past, but Harry would simply move along, ignoring those bits, and instead asking her about herself. Through these letters, Harry learnt that he and Draco were actually cousins, although more distantly related than he and Dudley were, something that Harry told Draco with no small amount of happiness.

But, this particular morning, Harry's entire letter from Narcissa was about his relatives, and his face grew redder and redder as he read it until Draco plucked it out of his hand. Harry promply smacked Draco around the head and shoved it back into his pocket, huffing.

"That's for me, not you."

Draco just raised an eyebrow, pointing at the parchment sticking out of Harry's pocket.

"Then why did I see my name on it?"

Harry frowned, putting his hand into his pocket to make sure Draco wouldn't take the parchment again.

"Your mother wrote your name, clearly. I didn't get there yet," he explained, obviously still annoyed that Draco had touched his letter without permission.

Draco grinned slowly, crossing his arms. "Well, if I'm mentioned, then I have a right to know why I was mentioned, right? So, we should read the letter together. Besides, it's my mum that wrote you."

Harry paused, thinking about the contents of the letter that he had seen before sighing and consenting. "Alright, but only if you don't tell anyone what's in it."

Draco nodded, clearly not fazed by his promise. "Fine with me, now let me see it."

Harry shook his head, speaking quietly as he began to dig through his basket of treats.

"Later, it's private, and I don't want anyone to see."

Draco shot him a questioning look, and Harry handed him a small tin of cookies that he wasn't all that fond of, but Draco loved. "About my relatives."

Draco nodded, happily accepting the cookies and stowing them away in his robes, giving Harry a muffin in return.

_**§§§§§§** _

Draco pushed his finished History of Magic essay aside, stretching in his chair before pointedly looking at Harry, who was absentmindedly smoothing out the letter Narcissa had sent him that morning while staring at the fire burning in the Common Room. Draco sighed, clearing his throat. Harry jumped, glaring at him.

"What do you want?"

Draco just stared at him until Harry sighed, unfolding the parchment in his hands. Draco immediately moved to sit beside him, shoulder to shoulder so that they could both read Narcissa's letter.

_Harry-_

_I'm glad you're over your little bout of sniffles, make sure you visit Madame Pomfrey in the Hospital Wing if you ever end up more sick than that. We can't have it escalating, after all._

_However, there is something that I would like to specifically write to you about. Like any other person in their right mind, I noticed how thin you were back at Platform 9 3/4 in September. It worried me to the point that I went to the Child Placement Agency at the Ministry to find out more information on your relatives. I was particularly worried about the fact that your relatives are Muggles, and you occasionally mention that they don't like magic. Especially since you have told me that you consider Draco and I to be more like family than them, when you have only known us for a month, and you really only know me through my letters._

_After a bit of effort, the head of the Ministry's CPA department (a very kind man named Ian Fife) found a folder on you, and managed to look up the address of your aunt and uncle. A copy of that folder now sits in my office, and I intend to use it for legal purposes, with your permission._

_With the address given to me by Ian, I went to your house to have a look around. However, I discovered that there was no hint that four people lived in the house rather than three. That is, apart from a torn envelope with your name on it poking out from under the door of a cupboard. I trust that you understand exactly what cupboard I am talking about, seeing as you appear to have been quite familiar with it._

_The purpose of my letter, Harry, is to ask you a few questions. To what extent did your relatives punish you for being different? Do you realise that none of it was your fault whatsoever? Did you have any contact at all with anyone from our world while growing up? What do you think is the best way to serve justice to your relatives, as they have wronged you?_

_Of course, you may not be able to answer my questions easily, and you may not want to, but if you ever need to talk about it, I am here for you, and if you need to talk face to face, just alert Professor Snape, and he should be able to make arrangements for one of us to Floo over for a conversation._

_Love as always,_

_Narcissa_

Draco looked at Harry, clearly concerned.

"Cupboard?"

Harry just sighed, shaking his head as he ran a hand through his hair, folding the letter and placing it back in his pocket. "I don't want to talk about it, alright?"

Draco nodded, wanting to press him harder for information, but instead chose not to, not wanting to upset the boy. "Chess, then?"

"I hate chess," Harry lamented as Draco dragged over the nearest chessboard, but Draco noticed his mouth turn up at the corners slightly.

"C'mon, you don't hate it, you just hate losing. And you  _always_  lose," Draco teased while making sure none of the pieces were missing. But just as he was about to thoroughly trounce Harry, the Common Room door opened.

"Mister Potter."

Harry turned, standing when he saw his Head of House, looking grumpy as ever.

"Yes, Professor?"

"Come with me." He turned, leaving the room, and Harry just shrugged, shooting a confused look to Draco, who was putting the chessboard away in disappointment.

Harry jogged to keep up with Professor Snape, hesitating before asking.

"If you don't mind my asking, Professor, where are you taking me?"

Professor Snape just made a small sound that let Harry know that yes, he really did mind Harry asking before he spoke. "Headmaster Dumbledore's office."


	5. Dumbledore's Office

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW for child abuse mentions

Professor Snape stopped in front of a gargoyle statue, staring at it for a moment before speaking.

"Apple rings."

Harry looked at the man in confusion, trying to figure out what that could possibly mean. The gargoyle stepped to the side, and Harry jumped back in surprise before following the Potions master up the revealed stairs, not wanting to be left behind. The spiral staircase led up to a set of doors, and Harry furrowed his eyebrows at the sound of arguing. No one in the office before them was yelling, but it was clear that one of the voices was quite agitated at the other. Professor Snape opened the door, nudging Harry in before shutting the doors and leaving.

"Sit down, Harry, sit," the old man behind the desk invited. Harry nodded slightly, sitting down in a chair next to his other guest.

"You doing okay, Harry?" Harry's mouth opened slightly when he saw that it was Narcissa sitting beside him, smiling gently.

"Y-yeah, thanks. Thank you for everything, really." Harry smiled back, really quite grateful to the blonde woman.

"Now, Harry," Dumbledore paused momentarily as Narcissa shot a glare at him before continuing his question. "Harry, do you know why you are here?"

Harry shook his head, fidgeting slightly. "Did I do something wrong?"

"Not at all, Harry. Mrs Malfoy, however-"

Dumbledore was cut off by Narcissa raising an eyebrow and speaking so softly Harry could hardly even hear her.

"That would be  _Lady_  Malfoy to you, Headmaster. Unless you would prefer the entire title? Now, pray tell, what on earth have  _I_  done wrong?"

Dumbledore pointed to a pile of ash on his desk before folding his hands, matching her calm tone. "You sent me this Howler, did you not?"

"I did," she admitted, "however, it was voicing valid complaints that never should have been needed, if you had simply done your job."

"You have yet to produce any proof of those complaints. Therefore, I am inclined not to believe you, what with your... _background_ , shall we say," said Dumbledore, clearly tip toeing around the line of angering Narcissa.

"You shouldn't need any  _proof_  to start an investigation. If one of your students is in a potentially dangerous situation, you should immediately attempt to find out what is going on, shouldn't you, _Headmaster_?" Narcissa spat out the last word like an insult, and Harry's neck was starting to hurt from looking back and forth between them, his head swimming as he realised that they were talking about him.

"And what potential danger is he in?"

"I never thought you would ask." Narcissa immediately opened a folder she had on her lap, pulling out countless sheets of parchment, reading off of them.

"' _May 24, 1984: several bruises to the chest, head, and arm regions. Cause of injuries: being hit by Dudley Dursley_ '"

"He was only three, Harry and his cousin was most likely playing around," Dumbledore dismissed. Narcissa merely raised an eyebrow, standing and slowly strolling around the office as she continued reading.

"' _June 12, 1984: broken left arm and sprained left wrist. Cause of injuries: being stomped on by Vernon Dursley_ '"

Dumbledore opened his mouth to protest, but Narcissa ignored him, continuing on louder until she was almost yelling about broken bones, countless bruises and cuts, and starvation. She threw down the folder on Dumbledore's desk, her voice dropping several decibels.

"Headmaster, do you know how I know all of these things? I work with the CPA department at the Ministry quite often. At Platform 9 3/4, I noticed that Harry Potter was much too thin for his age to be healthy. So, I went to Ian Fife with my concerns. The CPA has a folder on every magical child in Britain. When they suffer abuse, it updates in their file. Harry Potter's file is the thickest folder they have had in decades, and you want to tell me that everything is fine at his house? You want to tell me that my Howler was unwarranted? That I have no proof?" She sounded absolutely disgusted, and Harry felt like he was about to be sick.

His head was pounding and his palms were sweaty no matter how much he wiped them off on his robes. Narcissa looked at him, and he immediately ducked his head in shame. She walked over to him, placing her hands on his shoulders, standing behind his chair, looking Albus Dumbledore dead in the eye.

"The Child Placement Agency has researched the Dursleys very thoroughly, and I am far from pleased with the results. You can be damn sure that we will be after them through both Muggle and magic means. Harry?" She looked down at the boy staring a hole in the floor. He looked up at her, and she smiled slightly. "May we use that folder to make sure that your relatives are punished as much as they should be?"

Harry nodded, quite in shock at what was happening. "Yeah, sure. Whatever you need. Thanks."

"Hold on, Narcissa-" Narcissa's head shot up, and she glared at Dumbledore. "Lady Malfoy, you can't take Harry away from his relatives, I'm sure-"

"They put me in a cupboard."

Narcissa rubbed Harry's arm, looking up at Dumbledore, who was clearly surprised. She grinned before looking at Harry again.

"Harry, do you know who left you with those Muggles?"

He shook his head before his eyes widened, looking from her to Dumbledore several times. "No..."

"Harry, I never thou-" Harry's glare now matched Narcissa's, and he growled, several of Dumbledore's silver instruments falling off of shelves or just completely exploded in place.

"Why would you put me there of all places, I would have rather gone to an orphanage,  _what is wrong with you_? You could have at least checked up on me once in a while!" Harry was shaking now, and Narcissa was calmly standing there, her thumbs gently rubbing circles on his shoulders. Dumbledore was at a loss for words, and Narcissa smiled slightly.

"Well, Headmaster, it seems as if there is only one thing left to do. As a part of the Child Placement Agency, I declare Vernon and Petunia Dursley unfit as guardians of Harry Potter."

The folder on Dumbledore's desk flashed slightly, and Narcissa gently tugged Harry out of his seat, picking up the folder, her hand on Harry's back.

"Well, I'm going to go spend some time with my son for a bit and then get back to work convicting the Dursleys of multiple accounts of child abuse, have a pleasant evening, Headmaster." She smiled sweetly, guiding a rather numb Harry out of the room. As soon as they were down the stairs, she bent down on Harry's level, looking him in the eye.

"Are you alright, do you need anything? I know that was a lot to handle, I'm sorry. I would have done it without you there, but he insisted." Harry just stared at her for a moment, his mouth dry.

"Thank you." His tongue felt heavy in his mouth, and he was half convinced that he was crying, but Narcissa just smiled all the same, drawing him into a hug. Harry stood there awkwardly for a moment before burying his face in her robes as she just soothingly rubbed his back, letting him calm down and regain his composure before they continued their way back down to the Slytherin Common Room so Narcissa could see Draco.


	6. Familial Adaptations Begin

"You're thinking," Lucius said quietly as he watched his wife brush his hair from where he was adjusting his robes in front of their large bedroom mirror. She just smiled slightly, laying down her brush as she finished.  
"A woman is apt to do so."  
Lucius just smiled, walking over to her and kissing her cheek. "I was just wondering what was on your mind."  
She hummed softly, staring at their reflections in the mirror, a family photo of the two of them along with Draco stuck into the corner of it. Lucius' gaze drifted up towards it, and he hastily tore his eyes away from it, pushing away the memory.  
"I think we should adopt Harry," she finally said, her voice barely above a whisper. She abruptly stood, walking across the room as Lucius reflected on her statement. They had always wanted more children, ever since they'd had the joy of Draco being brought into their lives, but...  
"Do you think Harry would like that?"  
Narcissa turned around from where she was fidgeting with the handle of a dresser drawer, clearly having regained her composure.  
"Yesterday, when I visited Hogwarts, I was with him and Draco for a little bit, and they were like brothers, it was amazing, they've known each other for a month, but they're so in synch. It's almost ridiculous, and Harry's told me that I'm like a mother to him already, in his letters."  
"He's never met me though," Lucius pointed out. Narcissa just sighed, crossing over to her husband and tapping his chest.  
"He has met you, not that you really did anything but stand there. Besides, Draco looks up to you and emulates you so much, it'll be like he already knows you." She smiled at him, and he smiled back.  
"Fine, I have a meeting with Cornelius today anyway. You can come along and then we'll head to Ian's office to check out what it'll take to get Harry. But we should really ask first, alright?"  
Narcissa nodded before beginning to usher Lucius out of their bedroom and down to breakfast.  
"Yes, fine, but I'll ask after I'm sure we can adopt him. That way we don't get his hopes up, Merlin knows the boy has probably gone through that enough in his life."  
Narcissa was antsy all through their breakfast, clearly impatient to leave. Lucius sighed, reaching over and placing his hand on hers.  
"Are you alright, love?"  
Narcissa nodded, squeezing his hand. "I just really don't want him to go back to those Muggles. I know I declared them unfit, but..."  
"Dumbledore could interfere and ruin it," Lucius finished. She nodded, and he pushed away his breakfast, seeing that she was done. He stood, pulling her up from her seat. "C'mon, let's go. Don't want to be late."  
Narcissa took a slow breath as they approached their Floo, schooling her worried expression into a calm mask with practiced ease before following her husband to the Ministry. They made their way to Cornelius Fudge's office, greeting people as they went, asking after family members that they didn't really care for. Fudge himself greeted them, and immediately expressed his delight.  
"Hello Lucius, how are you? And you've brought Lady Malfoy along as well, to what do I owe the pleasure, Madame?"  
Narcissa just smiled, shaking his hand, absentmindedly wondering if he realised that he somewhat resembled a rabbit due to all of his excited bouncing.  
"Cornelius. It's been some time," she greeted.  
"It has, it has. How is young Draco? I've heard he's made friends with Harry Potter." Cornelius invited them into his office, offering Lucius some Firewhiskey, which he declined, as it was not even lunchtime yet.  
Lucius and Cornelius caught up for a few minutes before they began to discuss the problems within the Ministry lately. Some departments were becoming shortstaffed, some overstaffed, and many were lacking in funds. Narcissa mainly allowed herself to daydream during these proceedings, paying attention and keeping the information in the back of her mind, but as it was more Lucius' element than her own, she allowed him to deal with it.  
"And then, there's the CPA, and honestly, I'm not sure why they're suddenly asking for more funds. After all, they don't really do much, not since the war ended," Cornelius babbled on, and Narcissa immediately stiffened, looking at him and speaking gently in a tone that she was used to using to get stronger men than Cornelius Fudge to bow to her will.  
"Actually, Minister, that is where you are wrong. Do you know the function of the CPA?"  
He looked quite flabbergasted at her speaking out against him, and Lucius absentmindedly shined the top of his cane on his robes, wordlessly delegating the reins of the conversation over to his wife.  
"W-well, they deal with abused children, don't they? But, of course, no one would hurt their children, not in this day and age. Besides, those kids could always tell an Auror," Cornelius stammered out, withering under Narcissa's piercing gaze.  
"Minister, I would advise you to meet with Ian Fife sometime this week so you can actually learn some facts about the department and its work. Speaking of which, we have some work to be done with him today." She rose from her seat, looking at her husband. "Lucius?"  
Lucius rose, shaking Cornelius' hand. "Well, we must be off, I suspect we'll be quite busy. It was nice seeing you today, Cornelius, you must come to dinner some time."  
"Yes, yes, I shall," he said, quite shaken by Narcissa's blue eyes seemingly ripping right through him.   
As soon as they had left and shut the door, he reached for the bottle of Firewhiskey that Lucius had turned down. In his opinion, he should get a raise for every time he had to deal with Narcissa Malfoy's cutting glare.  
The two Malfoys made their way down the halls of the Ministry to the CPA department, Narcissa politely knocking on the door.  
"One moment!"  
Narcissa and Lucius sat down in the chairs lining the wall outside of the office, quietly talking about the arrangements they would have to make for Harry should he accept their proposal of adoption - given that they could adopt him, after all. The door of the office opened, and a woman walked out with a young girl, both positively beaming as the little girl animatedly talked with whom Narcissa assumed was now her mother, if the proud look on the woman's face meant anything. Ian Fife came to the door, a grin spreading across his face at the sight of Lucius and Narcissa.  
"Narcissa, Lucius! I didn't expect you two, come in, come in! What a pleasant surprise!" He happily ushered them in, offering them some biscuits and happily telling them about the woman and little girl that had just left.  
"-and I know I say it every single time, but I swear, I have never seen a happier child in my whole life!"  
Narcissa was happily smiling, and Lucius was actually quite touched, just as he always was when Narcissa told him stories of the CPA saving children from bad situations and giving them a happy family.   
"Well, my wife and I would actually like to have a tale like that as well," he finally said, causing a somehow larger smile to appear on Fife's face. The already exuberant man seemed to swell with even more happiness, and Lucius half expected him to explode.  
"That's wonderful, absolutely wonderful! Do you have a child in mind?"  
Narcissa smiled, gesturing for him to sit down and stop almost bouncing in place. Perhaps the man was a tad too in love with his job.  
"Well, first, we need to make sure there'd be no complications. And then we still need to ask. I wouldn't want to be adopted without being told, of course. Not that you can do that anymore, thank Merlin."  
Ian nodded seriously, folding his hands on his desk. "Would I be correct in assuming that it's Harry that you would like to add to your family?"  
Narcissa smiled softly, and Lucius nodded, both of them responding at the same time.  
"Yes."  
Fife clapped happily, grabbing Harry's file from where it had been in a drawer of his desk, opening it, and rifling through the folder's contents before nodding.  
"Right, the Dursleys were declared unfit, so you should be good. Just fill out these forms, and I'll check and make sure there's nothing else blocking your request, alright?"  
He handed them an unfortunately thick pile of parchment, and two quills before he stood, leaving the room. Lucius and Narcissa split up the papers, filling them out.  
"Every form I ever have to fill out asks the same thing, I swear. I'm not sure why we need to explicitly state how much money we have. After all, who knows how many Knuts Draco's dropped under his bed," Lucius complained under his breath. Narcissa laughed, signing her name for probably the twelfth time.  
After roughly twenty minutes, Lucius and Narcissa had finally finished filling out the forms handed to them by Fife, who was returning to the room, a folder in hand.  
"You were gone for quite some time," Narcissa remarked, and Fife frowned as he took a seat.  
"Yes, well, there was a slight problem that I'm afraid you two will have to sort out," he explained, trying to put it delicately. Lucius' thoughts quickly flashed to the war with Voldemort, and he fought the urge to rub at his left forearm.   
Those days were behind him, he had sworn, his life was now his family and keeping them safe.  
"Well, what's wrong?" Lucius asked, wondering if he'd have to start throwing more money at certain politicians.  
Fife just sighed, rubbing his hand on his face and looking at them, speaking simply.  
"Sirius Black has primacy right to Harry Potter, as delegated by James and Lily Potter's wills."


	7. A Deal

"Merlin, I hate it here," Lucius muttered. Narcissa just rubbed his back as they made their way over to the warden's office, a small building just outside of Azkaban. She tapped on the door, and it was quickly opened by a portly looking man who had his wand in hand.  
"Ah, you got here quickly," he grumbled, and Narcissa hid a smile, realising that he had been fast asleep. How useless.  
"Yes, we're here as was discussed earlier."  
He nodded, reaching over and handing them both necklaces that just looked like black rocks on a chain. "This'll keep the Dementors away during your meeting, good luck." He retreated back into his office, the door slamming.  
"What a charming individual."  
Narcissa just laughed, slipping the necklace over her head and taking her husband's hand as they began the walk toward Azkaban. Even with the effect of the Dementors negated, the somber, depressing aura of the place was still present. Narcissa shivered as they entered the tall fortress, and Lucius squeezed her hand.  
"May I see the map?" Lucius asked, and Narcissa pulled it out of the folder she was carrying, handing it to him without a word. He examined it for a moment before guiding her down the stairs, below the main prison. "We won't run into Bella, she's a floor above the ground. Sirius is...three floors down from here."  
The further down they traveled, the darker it got, until only their wands and very dim balls of light in each cell provided any light. Shifting sounds came from the cells at the lights traversing down the stairs, and when they stopped and headed down the hall that Sirius was kept in, people began throwing themselves at the bars, screaming and pleading. Narcissa took a slow breath, keeping her gaze in front of her, Lucius helpfully casting an air freshening charm to deal with the smell emanating from the cells.  
"Bellatrix isn't down here, you know," drawled a voice from the cell beside them. They turned to see Sirius Black leaning against his cell bars, staring at them through his matted hair. Narcissa frowned at seeing him like that, and she and Lucius each conjured a chair, sitting down in front of the cell.  
"We're here to see you, actually," she explained, thumbing at Harry's folder nervously.  
Sirius sighed, plopping down into the chair she had conjured in his cell, clearly relishing the comfortability that he had not had in almost a decade. "Joy. What happened, is Granddad dead?"  
Narcissa almost smiled, shaking her head. "No, but I haven't talked to him since...well, during the war. Your mum died though."  
Sirius sighed in relief, stretching out in the cushioned armchair. "Good, she was batty as all hell. Left the house and all to Reg, I assume."  
Narcissa froze as Sirius began to muse about whether or not his younger brother had gone to Azkaban or not, and if so, where he was in the large tower.  
"You didn't hear?" The blonde woman was in disbelief, and even Lucius was surprised. After all, everyone knew what had happened to Regulus Black.  
"What, is he famous now? On level with you, buying your way out of prison while us innocent are left to rot in here?" Sirius spat out, and Narcissa cringed at the pure venom coming from his words.  
Lucius raised an eyebrow at the dark haired prisoner, resting his hand on his wife's arm. "He's dead. He died back in 'seventy-nine. We figured you knew, after all, you had two ye-"  
"Regulus is dead. He's dead. Dead," Sirius kept repeating that to himself, his fingers in his hair as he stared at them in disbelief. "No, no, he can't be, one of the Slytherin traits is self-preservation, you can't tell me that I had more of that than he did. He can't be dead. Cissa, tell me he's lying to me, please."  
Narcissa hesitated before shaking her head. "No, he's right. I'm sorry. He went against the Dark Lord, though. That's how he died, if that's any consolation. He didn't die a Death Eater."  
Sirius buried his face in his hands, and the Malfoys went silent, giving him some time to grieve. When he finally lifted his head, wiping his face on his dirty prison robes, Lucius nodded to his wife. She had the more civil relationship with Sirius, as he had been quite close with his three female cousins when he was young, up until he had started Hogwarts. After that, Bellatrix refused to speak to him, and he had only talked to Andromeda and Narcissa, but mainly the former.  
"Sirius, we came here to ask you a favour," she started, only to be cut off by Sirius holding up a hand.  
"If it's about the Black family, you're going to have to deal with Granddad, he's Head of House, not me," he spoke flatly.  
"It's about your godson, Harry Potter."  
Lucius had certainly gotten Sirius' attention, and he leant forward, clearly now interested.  
"Harry? How is he, is he alright? He's started Hogwarts this year, didn't he? What House is he in?" Sirius was shooting off questions at them, clearly eager to know about his godson. Lucius held up his hand the same way that Sirius had, and Sirius huffed, shutting up.  
"We want to adopt him," Lucius said bluntly, and Sirius' eyes went hard.  
"Absolutely not. I was named guardian in both Lily and James' wills, I get to have him," he stubbornly protested, and Lucius smiled.  
"And who are you to be making demands, look at your position. You can comply, and we can work out a deal where you also get benefits, or-"  
Sirius sighed, nodding. "Or, you can declare that I am insane and then just take Harry anyway. Fine. Why do you want to adopt him?"  
Narcissa passed Harry's folder to Sirius, and Sirius slowly read through it, getting angrier with each sheet of parchment as Narcissa systematically explained the past month she had in regards to Harry, tossing in a few anecdotes about their correspondence.  
"I've come to care as much for Harry as I do for Draco. Surely you understand. After all, you only knew him a year, and ten years later, you still care so much for him," she stated.  
Sirius nodded absently, reading over the form he would have to sign to let them adopt his godson. "And what do you have to offer me?"  
"We'll get you a trial, and once you're free, and recovered from this hellhole, you can visit Harry as much as you want, have a say in his education of our world, declare him your Heir, whatever. He'll just be our son. Plus this way, if you declare him your Heir, you don't have to... Anyway, it's all written in the form."  
Sirius nodded again, looking up at them. "Alright, I'll do it. But, that being said, I don't trust you. So, I, Sirius Orion Black, swear on my body, magic, and soul, to always protect my godson, Harry James Potter, even if I must die to do so. You'd best take good care of him."  
Narcissa nodded, a dangerous glint in her eye as Lucius passed Sirius a quill to sign over custody of Harry to the state.  
"Trust me, if anyone so much as lays a finger on him, they'll be missing their entire arm."  
Both Sirius and Lucius flinched a little, but neither of them doubted the truth in the witch's words.


	8. A Letter and a Hex

For once, Draco was the one that was pelted with a pillow to be woken up. And then another. The boy found himself shoving a mountain of pillows off of his body, glaring at his dormmates, all of them standing on the opposite side of the room, Harry standing in front of them, still holding a pillow.

"Was that necessary?"

Harry just smiled innocently, fluffing the pillow in his arms. "Well, you always wake us up like that if we get up later than you. So, I got everyone up early."

Draco just huffed, crossing his arms after he had shoved the last pillows off of his bed. Harry grinned, and before Draco could react, the pillow Harry had been holding smacked itself right into Draco's face, before they all sprinted down the stairs, Theo laughing so hard he was coughing, Blaise herding them along.

Draco got dressed as fast as he could, grabbing a pillow and slowly creeping up the stairs to the Common Room. A couch pillow smacked into his head, and Harry shouted something, the boys quickly hiding behind things. Draco looked around the room, trying to spot where he had gone, before noticing that Gregory's back was sticking out from behind the couch. He lobbed the pillow over the back of the couch, and there was a satisfying thump before Harry popped up from behind the couch, throwing it back, twice as hard.

"Surrender!"

Draco snorted, picking up the pillow from the ground.

"Why would I do that, when I have the weapon here?" He asked, squeezing the pillow slightly as if that would prove his point. As soon as he spoke, five wands poked out from various pieces of furniture, all pointed at him.

"What on earth is going on here?"

The girls had finally emerged from their dorm, clearly confused about the scene in front of them. Pansy looked from Draco's pillow to the wands and heads popping up from behind chairs and the couch, shaking her head as she walked around Draco.

"I don't understand boys."

Daphne shook her head, taking Draco's pillow and tossing it at Blaise's head before following Pansy, Tracey and Millicent trailing after them. Draco quickly made for the door before the pillow could hit him again.

It was fifteen minutes later that Harry joined Draco at the Slytherin table, and Draco raised an eyebrow at him. "Where were you?"

Harry smiled slightly, reaching for the bacon as the owls came fluttering in, Talon, Draco's eagle owl racing Hedwig to reach the boys first. "I was putting the pillows back, since it was my idea and you didn't clean up. If your mum sent those really good cookies to you again, can I have one?"

Draco nodded as he untied the letter and basket of food from Talon, the owl immediately hopping over to Harry to steal some food before soaring off to the Owlery. Hedwig did the same, and then Draco peered over at the letter Harry was holding in his hand as he searched through his basket to see if Narcissa had given him the cookies he was craving.

"Mum told me to tell you not to open your letter around other people. What is it?"

Harry shrugged, pocketing the envelope. "I dunno. Hey, did she send the cookies to you? I don't have any."

Draco hummed, looking into his basket before shaking his head. "Nope. I have a couple of cupcakes though, if you want one?"

Harry shook his head, opting for a muffin. "I'm good, you could probably trade something for one."

As soon as he spoke, the daily trading session began, and Harry ultimately discovered a small box of the fudge cookie bars he so desperately wanted buried under a slightly squashed brownie. He was happily devouring them as he and Draco were headed to the Common Room to put away their extra food when Draco nudged his side.

"There's no one around, read the letter before you forget."

Harry nodded, and they stopped, moving to the side of the corridor, leaning against the wall as Harry pulled the parchment out of his pocket.

_Harry-_

_We have been thinking about it for a while, and after finally getting it cleared legally, Lucius and I have a question to ask of you. I consider you a son as much as I consider Draco a son, and I would do anything to protect you and make you happy, just as I would for him. Lucius does not know you as well, but he would like to get to know you, as we have both always wanted more children. So, Harry, would you consider letting us adopt you? We would love to officially include you in our family, and I'm sure Draco would love to have you as a brother, as he used to beg for a sibling when he was little. If you don't want to, we understand, but if you would like for us to adopt you, just owl me back, and we can all meet as a family so you can get your signature on the papers needed._

_Love,_

_Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy_

_P.S. Lucius would like to know if Draco has convinced you that the Magpies are the best Quidditch team yet. Men._

Harry's mouth was dropped open, and for once, Draco didn't close it.

Instead, he was nervously looking between the letter and Harry. "So, what do you think? Are you going to say yes?"

Harry snapped out of his stupor, searching through his pockets for a spare piece of parchment. He grinned as he hastily scribbled out a reply with the parchment balanced on his knee.

"I think that you're going to make an excellent brother, and I hope your place has loads of pillows," he said innocently, and Draco just crossed his arms, huffing even with the large smile on his face. He hugged Harry, the two of them almost bouncing in happiness.

"My parents have wanted another kid for so long, you don't even know. They had me and they were beyond happy, but they never had more children. So, they're going to be really happy that you want them to adopt you, this is going to be great. We have a really big house, and your room can be right next to mine. You'll have to decorate it over Christmas break though, it's a bit dull in there. Although, I'm sure Mum and Dad will decorate it a bit for you, I can help you decide what you want in there. We also have peacocks in the yards of the house - yeah, they're a bit weird...," Draco kept babbling on as they made their way to the Owlery.

"Why did your parents never have more kids?" Harry inquired, slightly confused. If they had Draco, and the amount of money that they did, surely they could have had more children. After all, the Weasleys had seven children and hardly any money.

Draco hesitated, his excitement bubbling down slightly. "Well, there was a war going on."

"Yes, but it's over, it's been ten years. Surely they could have had more children, or adopted more, seeing as how they're adopting me, so-" Harry was cut off by a loud voice from behind them.

"The Malfoys adopting  _Harry Potter_ , that's absolutely hilarious. Should have seen it coming when you were put into Slytherin."

Harry and Draco whirled around, and Harry stared at the boy before him, his eyes focusing on the bright red hair. "Oh, you're a Weasley!"

He seemed to take offense, crossing his arms. "Yeah, so?"

Harry just waved his hand, not really caring. "It was just the hair. Why do you even care about my life, I don't even know you."

The boy seemed to swell up, and he took a few steps towards Harry, holding out his hand.

"Ron Weasley. Honestly, it'd be for the best if you started hanging around my family, instead of...his evil one."

Harry gritted his teeth, pushing Ron's hand away and moving in front of Draco, ushering the blond back, as he was getting visibly angry, and Harry didn't much feel like trying to deal with the mess of him hexing the redhead before them.

"I'd rather not, since you're insulting some of the nicest people I know. I'll decide who I want to hang around for myself, thanks." Harry turned around, trying to prod the angry Draco down the corridor to the Owlery.

"Fine, I guess your parents died for you to become a prat who loves the same evil filth that got them killed."

Within a second, Draco had spun around in a circle, his wand in his hand, but Harry had already beaten him to it, the tip of his wand smouldering as the dark haired boy shook. Ron, however, was screaming. His robes were on fire, and his eyes began to swell shut as his body inflated like a balloon. Draco just stared at him dumbly for a moment before a stream of water hit the flaming redhead.

"Weasley! Twenty points from Gryffindor for provoking another student!"

Snape came striding down the corridor, jabbing his wand into Ron's side. He deflated instantly, and the Potions Master looked at Draco.

"Take him to the Hospital Wing."

Draco huffed, dragging the blinded, yet crying, boy off. Snape turned towards Harry, who was still shaking, staring at his wand.

"I don't know how that...Is he gonna be okay?"

Snape rolled his eyes, pulling Harry along to the dungeons. "He'll be fine."

Harry sat down in a chair in front of Snape's desk when they got to his office, staring at his knees.

"Potter, why did you hex the Weasley boy?" Snape asked tiredly, clearly not wanting to deal with this. Harry slowly looked up, opening his mouth and closing it a few times.

"He insulted my parents and Draco's parents in the same sentence, and the Malfoys have been nothing but nice to me. Also, what kind of person insults people who have been dead for a decade right in front of their kid? I don't even remember them, Draco's mum is more of a parent to me than I consider them. Like, I know they're my parents and all, but...I didn't even know how they died until this year. How am I meant to feel connected to them at all?"

Snape folded his hands, staring at the small wizard, slowly taking him in before he spoke, slowly. "I assumed you would be just like your father," he said, and Harry's head snapped up, clearly hungry for any information on the Potters. Snape swallowed the negative words he was about to say, instead changing his sentence.

"I assumed you would be just like your father," he repeated. "But you are your mother's son. Your mother was a good woman. A brilliant witch, always top of her class. Your father...was also...quite smart. Slacked off a bit, but he had talent," Snape admitted, bitterly saying it. But Harry was now beaming, and Snape sighed, standing.

"I'm sure they would have been very proud of you for sticking up for your friend, even though it's Draco Malfoy. Your mother, definitely, would have just wanted you to be happy. Now, go back to your Common Room, and stop making trouble, it gives me paperwork," he grumbled, and Harry quickly beat it out of the room.

Draco was sitting in the Common Room, sprawled out across the couch, staring at the door. He popped up as Harry walked in, raising his eyebrows.

"So, how'd it go? How many detentions?"

Harry smiled slightly, shaking his head. "None, he just wanted to know why I hexed him."

Draco nodded, standing and stretching. "Right, well, ready?"

"Ready for what?"

Draco stared at him, gesturing towards the parchment still in Harry's hand. Harry looked at it in slight surprise before it clicked in his mind, and he nodded.

"Oh, right, Owlery, yeah, let's go."

He followed Draco, who was shaking his head with a sigh. "I swear Potter, you forget things more than Longbottom does. That's why you run out of ink and parchment faster than I do, you use it all to write notes to remind yourself of things."

Harry rolled his eyes, shoving Draco lightly. "Oh, get over it, you'll have to live with me now."

Draco just grinned, and they went back into their happy mood, Ron Weasley not around to ruin it now.


	9. To Have A Home

On October 31st, Harry Potter woke up to a pillow whizzing through his bed curtains. He caught it, throwing it back in the direction it came from, hearing someone grunt as he put on his glasses, rolling out of bed to avoid another pillow. He brushed himself off, grinning.

"You need to work on surprise instead of having a routine," he said to Draco, who was glaring at the pillow on the floor by Harry's feet as if it had failed him on purpose.

His eyes flicked up towards Harry, and he grinned. "Noted,  _Wingardium Leviosa_!"

Harry's mouth popped open just in time for the pillow to smack him directly in the face. Draco laughed, quickly making for the door, shutting it just as the pillow hit it. Harry crossed his arms, and Blaise snorted, earning him a glare from the black haired boy.

The day seemed to drag on, and Harry and Draco were practically vibrating in excitement by the time that Professor Snape dismissed the class. Luckily, the Common Room was only a short way from the Potions classroom, and even shorter if you sprinted. Harry had just put his books away and returned up the stairs when Snape walked into the Common Room, looking at the two eleven year olds.

"Follow me. You'll be Flooing from the Headmaster's office and then you'll return there Sunday."

They followed as the bat-like man swept up towards Dumbledore's office, never once looking at Harry as the two boys trotted along behind him.

"Harry, Draco, how are you two? A, uh, special day, isn't it?" Dumbledore greeted as Snape shut the door of his office, leaving the two with the elderly wizard. Harry just smiled politely, and Draco indented his head ever so slightly. Truthfully, every time Harry saw Albus Dumbledore, he thought of Narcissa absolutely going off at him, and it always made him laugh, so he was quite literally biting his tongue.

They walked around the Headmaster, and Draco reached up for the Floo powder cup, holding it out to Harry, who took a handful of the powder and tossed it into the fireplace before walking in.

"Ministry of Magic, Child Placement Agency Department."

Harry found himself spinning around far too fast for his liking, and he squeezed his eyes shut to avoid being sick. His eyes only opened when he found himself being dumped onto a floor, landing sprawled out on his stomach. He groaned into the carpet under him, hearing soft laughter.

"Are you alright, Harry?" Harry looked up to see Narcissa and grinned sheepishly, pushing himself to his feet.

"Yeah, I just...I don't like that very much."

Draco easily strode out of the fireplace behind Harry, snorting when he noticed that Harry's robes were askew. He patted Harry's shoulder comfortingly as his mum fixed a crack in Harry's battered glasses.

"You'll get better at it, don't worry," the blond promised. Harry rolled his eyes, fixing his sleeves when Lucius and another man, portly and brunet, with a moustache somewhat reminding Harry of Mr Monopoly, entered the room.

"Harry, this is our good friend, Ian Fife. He's Head of the CPA, and I've worked with him quite a lot since I graduated college," Narcissa said, gesturing towards the man. Harry smiled slightly, waving.

"Hello, Mr Fife."

Fife shook his head, holding out his hand towards Harry for a handshake. "No need for formalities, just call me Ian."

Harry shook his hand, and a smile grew on Fife's face.

"Good, good, nice strong handshake. Now, you know the procedure of everything going on today, correct?"

Harry nodded affirmatively, pushing his glasses up his nose as they slid down.

"Yes, first is the legal adoption, which is just signing papers and boring things like that, and then we go to, erm-" Harry paused, pulling a piece of parchment out of his pocket to jog his memory before he nodded. "Then we go back to Malfoy Manor and do the optional magical aspect."

"You had to write it down?"

Harry shrugged, sitting down beside Draco in one of the chairs in front of Fife's desk, the Malfoys already seated. "I don't have a great memory, I always have to write things down."

Fife nodded, setting down the adoption papers that had already been approved by Narcissa down on the desk in front of them.

"Alright, so just sign where it asks, and you'll be legally good to go, got it?"

They all nodded in unison, and Lucius began the signing before passing the parchment and quill to Narcissa, who handed it to Draco - who only had to sign one thing in regards to inheritance. When Harry took the quill in his hand, looking down at the line that needed his signature to acknowledge that he approved of the adoption, he found himself furiously wiping at his eyes before he signed it as neatly as he could, carefully writing in his preferred name. They had all agreed that he could still call himself Harry James Potter, and would sign things with that, but legally, his last name could be Potter-Malfoy.

Fife happily clapped as Harry handed the parchment and quill over, placing the document into Harry's folder, standing up.

"Congratulations! Onto the next part then, shall we?"

Harry felt as if his face would break from smiling as he held onto Narcissa's arm, not even caring about how unpleasant Apparition felt. He had a proper family now, with a mum, a dad, and a brother. He never had to go back to the Dursleys, and he had people who would - and did - care about him.

"Welcome home, Harry."

That was it, that was what did Harry in. Arriving in the Malfoy house for the first time and immediately hearing someone declare it his home. He broke down into tears, and Narcissa immediately held him to her, Lucius joining in the hug.

Draco wiggled his way between his parents, patting Harry's back. "Come on, you haven't even seen your room yet. No crying on me yet."

Harry just laughed, and Narcissa pulled her robes over her hand, gently wiping Harry's face. Lucius put his hand on Harry's shoulder, guiding him up the stairs to a room that Harry guessed was in the center of the house. It was quite bare, with only a few rows of chairs and what appared to be an altar, a large banner emblazoned with the Malfoy family crest hanging behind it.

Fife took a seat in one of the chairs, and the new family of four knelt in front of the altar. Narcissa rubbed Harry's back as he anxiously eyed the knife beside the bowl in front of them.

"It doesn't hurt at all, I promise."

Draco nodded, helping his father light the candles around them.

"The family magic protects you from it doing any damage. That's why you do the magic oath before the blood one."

Harry furrowed his eyebrows, having been quite sure that it was the other way around. He checked his parchment again, sighing softly and rubbing his nose. He was wrong and Draco was right. He really needed to do more puzzles or something to help his memory before he ended up hurting himself. After all, he nearly blew up his cauldron every potions class, only Draco keeping him and his grade afloat by preventing that.

Harry snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Lucius mention his name.

"Harry James Potter-Malfoy, will you accept the Malfoy family magic and be my son, and in doing so, do everything you can do to uphold the honour of the Malfoy family and what it stands for?"

Harry took a slow breath as the air grew thicker with every word Lucius spoke.

"I will."

Harry's vision tinted gold, and the smell of peppermint seemed to fill the room. Narcissa then spoke, and Harry turned his attention to her.

"Harry James Potter-Malfoy, will you accept the Malfoy family magic and be my son, and in doing so, do everything you can do to uphold the honour of the Malfoy family and what it stands for?"

"I will."

Harry's vision now faded to a dark purple, the smell of jasmine instead entering his nostrils. Draco was last, and he grinned at Harry.

"Harry James Potter-Malfoy, will you accept the Malfoy family magic and be my brother, and in doing so, do everything you can do to uphold the honour of the Malfoy family and what it stands for?"

A grin matching Draco's broke out onto Harry's face at the word 'brother', and Harry nodded.

"I will."

Harry now saw green, and he now smelt petrichor. The other three spoke in unison, Harry's eyes shutting as they did.

"Then we accept you, and welcome you into our family, thereby granting you the protection of the Malfoy family magic."

Harry felt a wind tear through the room, but when he opened his eyes, nothing had been moved even slightly. Lucius reached around his wife, clapping Harry on the shoulder.

"Alright?"

Harry grinned, nodding. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm great. Never better."

"Up for the next part then?"

Harry nodded in determination, and Lucius lifted the knife, holding out his hand over the bowl, easily cutting his palm.

"With my blood, I grant my new son the protection of the Malfoys."

Narcissa and Draco did the same, Draco once again replacing 'son' with 'brother' before handing Harry the knife. Harry's hand shook slightly as he held it against his skin, nervous despite their reassurance that it wouldn't hurt. Lucius nodded, and Harry took a breath, letting the blade cut through his skin like it was hot butter being cut by a chainsaw. He blinked at the absolute lack of pain before speaking.

"With my blood, I accept the protection of the Malfoys."

The mixed blood in the bowl swirled before turning gold and disappearing as if it had drained itself despite the lack of any holes in the bottom of the bowl. Harry looked down at his hand again to see that there was a golden line across his palm. Draco grinned, holding up his own hand.

"We match now."

The line across Draco's hand was much fainter, but it was there. Harry had never noticed it, and as Lucius tapped all four of their palms with his wand, Harry knew why. They hid it. Fife stood from his seat, clapping his hands together.

"Now that that's over with, how about we all go out to eat, eh?"

As the five of them were in the middle of eating dinner in some restaurant Harry hadn't ever heard of before, his face began to hurt from the smile he didn't know he had. And when Lucius had told the waiter that his sons -  _sons_ , as in plural, not just Draco, but Draco  _and_  Harry - would like to see the dessert menu, Harry felt like his heart might explode.

He had never remembered ever being so happy in his entire life.


	10. Explanations and a Check-Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Recap of the fic so far: Harry met the Malfoys at Platform 9 3/4, hit it off with Draco, and was sorted into Slytherin. Narcissa began writing to him, concerned about him due to how he looked at the train station. She begins an investigation into his life before Hogwarts, going to Ian Fife, who is in charge of the magical equivalent of Child Protection Services. She then yells at Dumbledore, declaring the Dursleys unfit as guardians. Narcissa and Lucius then decide that, if Harry wants it, they will adopt him, but run into a problem, as Sirius is still legally next in line for custody of Harry. They go to Azkaban and strike a deal with him; if he hands over custody of Harry, they'll try to get him a trial. He does, and Narcissa writes to Harry about wanting to adopt him. Harry then ends up sending Ron to the Hospital Wing for insulting the Malfoys before accepting the adoption proposal. The Malfoys then do a legal adoption of Harry, and then a magical one, adopting him in name, magic, and blood.

Harry groaned as he awoke in his new bedroom at Malfoy Manor. A smile broke out onto his face as he stared at the bed around him, his annoyance at the dim light coming through his curtains instantly abated by the memory of his previous day. He practically shoved his glasses onto his face as he got out of bed. His bedroom door opened, Draco poking his head in and grinning at his new brother.

"You coming down to breakfast or not?"

Harry and Draco almost sprinted to the stairs, sliding down the railing. Draco picked up a little too much speed behind Harry and smacked into him, sending them both flying off the end of the end, toppling onto the ground in a pile.

"Alright, boys?"

"Well, my mouth is full of hair and my arm is stuck under Harry, but yeah, I'm peachy, Dad." Draco replied, making a face as he pulled his mouth away from Harry's head.

Lucius laughed, reaching down and pulling his sons up, brushing them both off, ruffling their awful bedhead that hadn't been improved by their spill off the banister before leading them to the dining room.

"How about we have breakfast instead of concussions?"

Harry sighed softly as he sat down at the table next to Draco. "Doesn't matter, I'm going to St. Mungo's anyway, aren't I?"

Lucius just smiled, sitting down across from them. "Either way, you need breakfast, so eat up."

Harry just smiled at him, following Draco's actions in loading his plate with breakfast. Narcissa entered the room, her hair a mess, throwing Harry off a little. Lucius at least looked like he had ran his fingers through his hair to tame it, but Narcissa looked like she had sleepwalked down the stairs and into the dining room.  
Narcissa covered her mouth as she yawned before kissing each of her sons on the cheek, moving to sit next to her husband, who had helpfully loaded up her plate with breakfast.

"Sleep well, Harry?" She asked, and Harry nodded, his mouth full of eggs.

"Yes, thank you," he replied once he had swallowed what was in his mouth. Lucius took the newspaper from the house elf that popped in, and Draco looked over in interest.

"Anything good in there?"

Lucius hummed, scanning the paper before nodding. "Apparently, there was a troll found in the Forbidden Forest outside of Hogwarts yesterday. The Beast Division came to take care of it though, so that's settled. Love, your article was printed."

Narcissa nodded, and Harry stared at Lucius in fascination.

"Did you say there was a troll in the forest?"

Lucius nodded, giving the paper to Narcissa after handing Draco the section with comics in it.

"Yes, they're big, smelly, nasty, ugly, dumb things. I believe we have a book on them in the library, so you can look them up when you get back from St. Mungo's."

"And you said there was a Beast Division?" Harry asked, intrigued by the concept of a magical form of an animal control.

Draco jumped at the chance to explain something to Harry, as usual. "There's a bunch of departments in the Ministry, I've explained that to you. Within some of those, are divisions, and inside of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, there's the Beast Division, Being Division, and Spirit Division. Trolls fall under the classification of beast, so the Beast Division took care of it." He looked at Lucius to see if there was any more information he had missed or not said correctly, but Lucius just nodded.

"The Department also contains the Goblin Liaison Office, the Centaur Liaison Office, the Pest Advisory Board - which handles infestations in peoples' homes and such -, and the Office of Misinformation."

Harry furrowed his eyebrows, in the middle of cutting up a waffle. "And what does that do, spread lies around?"

Narcissa smiled, putting down the Daily Prophet. "No, that's the general Ministry, usually."

"Narcissa!"

She just laughed, waving her hand in Lucius' direction, her attention on Harry as she explained. "The Office of Misinformation is only in use when there's a collision between the magical and Muggle worlds that is so intense that the only explanation is magic. They contact the Prime Minister, and work out a way to explain it to Muggles."

"And why can't the Muggles know about us?" Harry inquired, and all of the blonds looked at each other, quiet for a moment before they looked at Harry. Draco opened his mouth, hesitating.

"It's...complicated."

"Well, if we have more advanced medicines, and they have more advanced technology, then surely it makes sense to try and bridge that gap so Muggles and magic can peacefully coexist and work together, right?"

Lucius shook his head, setting down his fork as Narcissa pressed her fingers together, clearly trying to think of a way to explain.

"Harry," Lucius began, speaking slowly, carefully picking his words. "Have you ever been tickled?"

"Have I what?"

Lucius looked at Draco, who leant over, poking Harry in his side. Harry curled up in a ball, swatting Draco's hand away and yelping as his knee hit the table hard enough to shift everything on it slightly.

"What are you doing now?" Lucius asked calmly, clearly making a point.

"Protecting my stomach," Harry muttered, glaring at Draco, swatting at it every time it came near him now, Draco understanding what his parents were trying to do.

"Why?"

"So he doesn't touch me again!"

Draco stopped, holding up the back of his hand towards Harry, who blinked when he saw that it was bright red.

"That is why we do our best to hide magic from Muggles. Granted, some people go much too far..." Lucius trailed off, directing his attention towards his glass of orange juice.

"What he's saying, Harry," Narcissa said, finally seeming to have worked out her thoughts into comprehensible words. "Magic is threatening to Muggles. You've heard of the witch burnings by now, yes? And technology is threatening to a majority of wizards. Which motivated the war with the Dark Lord quite a lot, although...misplaced blood prejudice was also a large part in it. But prejudice takes time and willpower to correct. Anyway, you felt threatened when Draco went to poke you again, correct? So you went to hit him every time he tried to make contact with you afterwards, even though you didn't know what his intent was. Now, if he hadn't poked you in the first place, then you wouldn't have. Take him poking you as a metaphor for contact between our two worlds, and you curling up and slapping his hand as possible reactions. The most likely reactions. Which have occurred several times, over and over again."

Harry nodded slowly, finally understanding. Narcissa sighed, checking the time and standing.

"Right, well, we should be get ready to leave now, or we'll be late."

Harry got up, dashing upstairs to his room and getting dressed, yanking a brush through his messy hair, eventually giving up on it, like he did every day.

"Are you ready?"

Harry looked over to see Narcissa standing by his door, smiling. He nodded, following her to his office. He hesitated in front of the fireplace, gripping the Floo powder in his hand as he looked at her.

"Nothing will hurt, will it?"

Narcissa's face softened, and she bent over to his height, cupping his face in her hand.

"No, nothing they do will hurt. And if it does hurt, at all, you just say so, and they'll help. Also, if you're asked any questions you don't like, you can say you don't want to answer. And I'll be there with you the whole time unless you want me to leave, okay?"

Harry nodded, and Narcissa kissed the top of his head. "Healer Farley's office."

Harry was careful to tuck his elbows into his sides as he began spinning, but still ended up in a disgraceful heap on the floor of the office he and Narcissa were Flooing to. A hand reached down, and he took it, allowing them to pull him up.

"You alright Harry? I'm Alex."

Harry looked up to see someone smiling at him, their warm dark eyes making him feel safe with how they looked at him as if he was their little brother. They were quite short, and Harry was caught off guard by the fact that he couldn't quite place if they were male or female.

"Er, no offense, but-"

He was cut off as Narcissa arrived, immediately reaching out to embrace the person before Harry.

"Alex, how are you?"

Alex just laughed, hugging the taller woman as Narcissa playfully ruffled their free flowing dark curls which sprung back up over their head when Narcissa pulled back. She looked at Harry, smiling.

"Harry, this is Alex, they're Draco's favourite Healer, so Draco thought that maybe you might like them."

Alex grinned, mock bowing, causing Harry to smile. "I'm essentially the Malfoys' personal Healer, so now that extends to you."

They extended a hand towards Harry, and he took it, noticing how - although it was quite dark - Alex's skin only seemed to be a bit darker than his own. It suddenly clicked in his mind that his own dark skin was no longer reduced in pigment from days in his cupboard under the stairs, but instead returned to its former dark glory from Draco constantly dragging him outside almost every day, even if just for a few minutes to chuck some toast to the Giant Squid.

Alex led him into an adjacent room, helping him onto a table as Narcissa took a seat in a cushy chair next to the table that Harry was sitting on. Alex asked him a few questions about his classes and friends as they looked through Harry's file before smiling, turning to him.

"This will just be a check up, hopefully. So, no stress, alright?"

Harry nodded, and Alex instructed him to lay down and take his glasses off. They put them to the side on the table, rolling up their sleeves.

"This might take a bit, so if you want to ask me any questions, just shoot."

Harry nodded, and Alex began methodically casting spells on different parts of Harry's body, and Harry could see words being written on a roll of parchment hanging down from the ceiling on the other side of the room.

"What's that?" He asked, pointing at it. Alex turned their head, smiling.

"Oh, that just tells me the outcome of the spells. For example, I broke my leg once, and the Healer I had could tell, but I wanted to know what that giant parchment was for. So, they showed me. They cast this handy little diagnosis charm on my leg, and it said that my leg was broken in three places, fractured in another two, and that the recommended way to fix it was amputation."

"Amputation?"

Alex nodded, reaching down. Harry's mouth fell open as they held up a leg in their hand, still beaming. "Yep, they just chopped it right off, so now I have a fake leg. I think it's quite useful though, I could beat someone around the head with it if I needed to."

They replaced their leg, and Harry just laughed, imagining Alex fighting someone off with their leg.

"How did you break your leg anyway?"

Alex went quiet for a moment before speaking softly.

"I had really big stairs at the house I grew up in, and my uncle decided to toss me down those four flights of stairs. Twice. Hurt like hell. I was eight."

Harry's smile vanished, and his head suddenly began to hurt. He put his hands on either side of it, closing his eyes. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine. He didn't think I was right in the head. Said I was a freak. I didn't conform to the standards he expected in his family. So he thought he could beat the strangeness out. That'll never work though. But that's how Narcissa and I met, when I went to Hogwarts I told the first adult I could, and then it was over for him, and I spent my holidays at the Malfoys until this lovely woman I now call my mother, Madge Farley, decided to take me in. She and her husband Charlie decided to adopt me. Best day of my life."

Harry smiled slightly, opening his eyes and reaching out to pat Alex's hand. They smiled at him before putting their wand away and walking across the room to the parchment hanging from the ceiling, tearing Harry's report off, reading it, occasionally glancing at the eleven year old.

"Harry, do you happen to have memory problems?"

Harry's head whipped up, and he nodded. "All the time, I always have to write stuff down or I forget the most basic things, like eating. Draco always has to remind me to do things multiple times. Madame Pomfrey had to convince my professors to allow me to use a notecard during tests so I don't fail my classes."

Alex nodded, showing Narcissa the parchment, pointing to something and speaking softly. Harry squirmed, and Narcissa looked at him before looking back at Alex, her mouth set in a hard line. Alex nodded, moving to sit down next to Harry, crossing their legs as they faced him.

"Harry, may I have permission to look through your mind? I just need to double check what the report says is the source of your memory problems."

Harry nodded, and Alex lifted his chin so that they were looking into each other's eyes. Harry shivered as he felt what seemed like a feather drifting around inside his head. Alex took his hands in their own, stroking their thumbs over Harry's knuckles. Harry relaxed more, and the feather seemed to move more towards the back of his head and then stop. Alex's eyebrows furrowed, and they looked at Narcissa, the feather feeling disappearing from Harry's head.

"The parchment is right."

Narcissa became visibly angry, and Alex looked back at Harry.

"Harry, do you know what a memory charm is? The incantation is Obliviate?"

Harry shook his head, and Alex nodded. "Right, well, it is used to clear someone's memory of a certain event. However, tests have proven that if it is used on a developing mind too many times in a certain span of time, it leads to memory problems. Which are usually cured through Occlumency, which I can teach you."

"Will you?"

Alex bit their lip, sighing. "Only if you want me to. Because, most likely, you were Obliviated because of very bad memories, so you would have to relive and deal with those if I were to teach you Occlumency, because the kind of Occlumency I use is processing and filing away memories to guard them. And I didn't start that until I was fifteen, and under the guidance of a Healer trained in psychotherapy. So, I could help you, but you are very young, so you might not react very well."

Harry frowned, tilting his head slightly.

"Yes, but I need my memory. I can't be expected to use a notecard for everything. What if I'm in a situation where I need to remember something and I can't? There are people who still want me dead, you know."

Alex grinned, ruffling Harry's hair. "There you go, you little Slytherin. We'll have to go slowly, so maybe a memory every weekend? I'll just have to get it cleared with Madame Pomfrey and Dumbledore."

The three talked for a few hours about the other particulars from Harry's report, and Harry made multiple faces as Alex stuffed a few nutrient potions down his throat, exasperatedly saying that they would help him with every potion.

Eventually, Narcissa and Harry had to take their leave, and Harry paused before the Floo in Alex's office, turning to them.

"I've just realised, I meant to ask you-"

Alex just smiled, tapping their own nose. "Genderfluid, I fluctuate between being a boy and a girl. Ask Draco, he can explain it to you, I told him about it the day he was old enough to ask and understand."

Harry nodded, waving and then heading back to Malfoy Manor, just in time for Draco to drag him outside to mess around on the Malfoys' brooms with Lucius.


	11. Letters and Memories

Narcissa smiled slightly as the familiar barred owl flew through her office window, landing on her desk, expectantly looking at her. She reached out, untying the letter from the owl, flipping it over. She pressed her thumb to the familiar seal on the back, not even wincing when it pricked her, the seal fading away, letting the letter unfold. The words slowly faded onto the paper, written in her own blood.

_Narcissa-_

_He is open to the idea and willing to help. Do all you can then some. I am not letting him leave again. I will come back next month. I'll bring your sons presents. Make sure everything stays as per usual until then. No one can know. Not yet. I want it to be on my terms._

There was no name, only a large paw print at the bottom of the parchment. Narcissa ran her fingers across the parchment, smiling before letting her features settle into a poker face as she tossed it into the fire before handing the owl on her desk a quick response letter. It immediately left, and Narcissa picked up another piece of parchment, closing her eyes for a moment before beginning to write.

_Arcturus-_

_As a born daughter of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, I naturally care for the members of the House. My concern at the moment, is placed on Sirius Black III, your own grandson. Despite the fact that his mother disowned him, he is still our family by blood. He has been imprisoned in Azkaban without a trial for a decade now, and the political power of my husband, Lucius Malfoy, and I alone has not been enough to guarantee him a trial. We need your help. We need a stronger appeal, and as the Head of House Black, I believe that you will be able to get Sirius the trial he deserves. After all, he did nothing to deserve Azkaban, and it is because of him that Lucius and I were able to adopt Harry._

_-Narcissa_

_P.S.: Please tell me you've been looking after your health while holed up in that drafty old manor of yours. You aren't exactly a spring chicken anymore._

She sighed, stretching slightly before handing it to her personal owl, finally sitting down to read the letters her sons had sent to her, Hedwig and Talon peacefully sleeping on one of the perches in her office.  
She had just finished writing to Harry about why Draco wasn't comfortable around the Muggleborn girl Harry had just befriended when a great horned owl that she had only had seen twice. Once to congratulate her on her marriage, and the other time to inform her that Regulus was dead.

Narcissa shook herself out of her thoughts and took the scrap of parchment from the owl that was now staring at her, a foot away on her desk. She ignored it, looking at the small piece of parchment between her fingers.

_Come over now and we'll get it sorted out immediately._

Narcissa stood, and the owl swooped out of the window. She handed her sons' letters to their respective owls, watching as they flew away.

"Dobby!"

The house elf appeared, and Narcissa glanced at him as she pulled on her coat.

"Inform Lucius that I went to Black Manor when he returns from Christmas shopping."

Dobby nodded and disappeared with a pop!, and Narcissa sighed softly, walking down to the entrance, thinking of the large manor that she had spent her early childhood growing up in before turning on her heel and swallowing the uncomfortable feeling that always came along with Apparition.

She stared up at the manor behind the large gates in front of her, reaching out and pushing them open, walking the long distance to the front door, the sounds of children screaming and laughing echoing in her ears along with that of the howls of pain of adults. She shook her head, opening the front door, a house elf appearing before her, bowing deeply.

"Miss Cissy. It has been a long time since Damel has seen you last."

Narcissa's eyes traveled over the elf, her head spinning as she looked at the elf's missing ear and sturdy metal leg.

"It...has. I'm here to see Arcturus."

The elf nodded, gesturing to Narcissa to follow her. Narcissa moved much slower than usual, trying to process the influx of memories that were why she had never returned to this house after age nine. The war hadn't even started and her family had thrown into chaos.

_**§§§§§§** _

_**Narcissa wiped the three year old Regulus' hands clean of the chocolate rabbit given to him by Sirius, the toddler squirming in Bellatrix's lap.** _

_**"C'mon Reg, here, look at the sparkles." Bellatrix waved her wand, and Regulus' attention immediately turned to the colourful sparks shooting out of the tip of Bellatrix's wand.** _

_**A body bumped into Narcissa from behind, and Andromeda laughed triumphantly, scooping up Sirius and taking her wand from him.** _

_**"I've only had that for a few months, you can't keep it."** _

_**"But I can do magic too!"** _

_**Andromeda just smiled, and Bellatrix's head snapped to the side as the manor's shield suddenly sprung up. She threw Regulus into Narcissa's arms, pointing at the door into the house.** _

_**"Go!"** _

_**Regulus began panicking, and Narcissa quickly switched children with Andromeda, the older girl better at calming Regulus down.** _

_**"Bella, you can't do enough magic to-"** _

_**"Get inside, all of you!"** _

_**Bellatrix shoved them towards the door as the shield began cracking from the assault. Bellatrix herded the younger four inside, pushing them up the stairs.** _

_**"This would be a good time for someone to come home right now!"** _

_**"Shut up and get up the stairs before they break through the shield, I can barely cast a Protego big enough to protect all of us, and I don't care to find out what will happen if it breaks, now**_ **move** _**!"** _

_**Bellatrix shoved them into the closest bedroom as something slammed against the door, locking it and shoving a chair under the handle before pushing them inside the closet, silencing all four of them.** _

_**"Do not leave this closet no matter what. Damel."** _

_**A small house elf appeared, looking at Bellatrix, calm despite the fact that people were in the manor.** _

_**"Yes, Miss Bella?"** _

_**"Get in the closet and keep them safe at all costs."** _

_**The elf solemnly nodded, snapping her fingers, a large war hammer appearing in her hands.** _

_**"As you wish, Miss Bella." She moved into the closet, closing the door.** _

_**Narcissa passed Sirius to Andromeda, who was putting Regulus up onto a high shelf. She sat the five year old next to him, and the two boys clung to each other. Andromeda pulled out her own wand despite the fact that third year Bellatrix definitely couldn't do anything to them, let alone Andromeda, who hadn't even finished a year of Hogwarts and now couldn't speak. Narcissa just laid on the floor, watching under the crack as Damel stood in front of them, clearly ready, despite her ears twitching nervously.** _

_**Bellatrix was standing in the middle of the room, facing the door. Narcissa could imagine exactly how her sister looked. Standing tall, wand aimed at the door, fully ready to try and take down whoever dared to enter the room. Footsteps kept crossing back and forth in front of the door of the room, but Bellatrix never moved.** _

_**The door finally came crashing down, and Narcissa heard two shouts, one from Bellatrix, and one from the person entering the room.** _

_**"Who decided to let a child defend the house? The Blacks have really lost their touch."** _

_**Narcissa struggled to put a name to the voice, trying and failing over and over as more people entered the room, Bellatrix constantly shouting "Protego!" and as many jinxes and curses she knew.** _

_**"This is cute, but enough is enough. Crucio!"** _

_**Bellatrix hit the ground, screaming and writhing, her wand rolling away. Narcissa's mouth opened, trying to scream as she began crying, watching her sister convulsing, her screams echoing through the air, curling up and sobbing in a ball each time the curse was lifted.** _

_**The closet door was ripped off its hinges, and Bellatrix lifted her head, immediately trying to crawl to her wand despite her limbs not cooperating with her. She was hit by the Cruciatus again, and she began screaming again before going silent. Damel was already swinging her hammer, knocking out kneecaps and bashing in heads, her magic tearing through the room, slamming people into the walls.** _

_**Narcissa finally found herself able to scream, and all she could hear was crying as Damel held her back.** _

_**"You stays here."** _

_**The house elf left the room, and the four of them began trying to push against the invisible barrier set by the elf, all of them screaming for Bellatrix to get up.** _

_**Eventually, their parents and Arcturus got home, Damel already busy trying to wake Bellatrix up. The elf constantly reassured them that she was alive, only in shock. Narcissa couldn't stop screaming until she lost her voice.** _

_**It took weeks in St. Mungo's for Bellatrix to wake up, and longer still for Narcissa to forget about it. Andromeda, Sirius, and Regulus had been easily Obliviated of the** _ _**encounter, but Narcissa could remember every detail no matter how many times they tried to Obliviate her.** _

_**When Bellatrix finally came to, she couldn't remember any of it after telling everyone to get in the closet. Narcissa had managed to fill her in between tears, and afterwards, her older sister became obsessed with the idea of destroying someone as much as they had destroyed her mind and Narcissa's.** _

_**§§§§§§** _

"Master Arcturus should be inside."

Narcissa almost screamed when Damel spoke before slowly taking a breath, nodding and heading inside, almost collapsing in a chair before Arcturus' desk.

"You don't look well."

"Every time I think about this house...I remember."

Arcturus frowned, nodding. "I apologise. Nonetheless, you came here to talk about Sirius. He needs a trial."

Narcissa nodded, composing herself before sitting up straight.

"We just need you to write a letter demanding Fudge to comply with the Malfoy's demand of a trial, because Sirius is your blood. Something like that."

Arcturus nodded, picking up a piece of parchment and a quill, handing it to her.

"Will this suffice?"

Narcissa's eyes scanned the long letter, smiling as Arcturus described how disgusted he was with the Ministry for doing his family such an injustice.

"It sounds perfect. You might want to take out the part that says "Honestly, Cornelius, I ought to bend you over my knee and spank you for ten years in the middle of Diagon Alley so you feel a hundredth of the pain and humiliation that you have put the House of Black through."

Arcturus just laughed, taking the parchment back and putting it into an envelope, stamping it with the family seal and handing it to his owl. He began walking back to his desk, picking up a tin of biscuits as he walked.

"Nonsense, an old man has got to have some fun. Now tell me, how are-"

He suddenly stopped, grabbing the end of his desk, letting out a heavy breath. Narcissa stood, immediately worried.

"What's wrong?"

"Be a dear and take me to St. Mungo's, will you?"

Narcissa wrapped her arm around him, and he completely leaned into her, losing consciousness.

"DAMEL!"

The elf appeared and immediately took in the situation, grabbing the two of them and popping them into St. Mungo's. Narcissa noticed Alex walking in, and she grabbed them by the shoulder.

"What are you doing right now?"

Alex looked at Arcturus, immediately conjuring a stretcher and helping Damel get Arcturus onto it. "Helping him, no one has ever died on me, and that isn't starting today." They grabbed ahold of the stretcher and disappeared. Damel collapsed onto the floor, wailing, and Narcissa scooped her up, much calmer now that Arcturus was in Alex's hands.

She cradled the elf, trying to calm her down as she speed walked to Alex's working room, where the Healer was calmly talking to Arcturus as they supplied him with extra oxygen, checking his vitals.

Narcissa set the house elf down, and Damel rushed over to the table Arcturus was laying on, sobbing.

"He'll be fine. Take a breath and have a seat, okay?"

Damel took in a ragged breath before plopping down onto the floor, still crying. Narcissa stood next to Alex, looking at Arcturus.

"How are you feeling?"

"Absolutely spiffy, Alex here knows exactly what they're doing, unlike some people around here. You deserve a raise, I'll have a talk with the Head Healer about that."

Alex just snorted, shaking their head. "You concentrate on getting better first. Your heart needs a chance to relax. Alright?"

Arcturus just waved his hand, stretching out along the bed. He looked at Narcissa, smiling.

"Thank you."

Narcissa smiled back, nodding.

"And thank you for helping me. Do you need anything?"

Arcturus shook his head, turning his head as Alex asked.

"I'll be fine. You head on home. You've had a stressful day and it's only past lunch."

"I'll visit tomorrow."

Alex looked at Narcissa, smiling.

"I'll Floo you if you're needed."

"Thank you."

Narcissa hugged them, kissing Arcturus' cheek before heading into Alex's office and Flooing home, immediately heading into her bedroom and curling up, looking at the assortment of pictures on the table by her side of the bed and bursting into tears, sobbing into her pillow until Lucius came home and could comfort her.


	12. Snuffles and Fluffles

Harry slowly opened his eyes, quite exhausted and ready for a nap. Alex looked at him from the chair across from him, passing him a thick blanket and a Puffskein. Harry cuddled the creature close to his body, Alex staying silent and letting him just pet it for some time.

"How did it go?"

Harry tucked his feet under his body, curling up in the chair, looking at the Puffskein as he talked. "Well, I got back to around the time when I was five, because I saw a paper that said 1985 on it, and it's easier if I try to figure out who did the Obliviating rather than focusing on reliving myself getting beaten."

Alex nodded, absentmindedly playing with a bouncy curl popping out of the top of their head, tugging on it.

"Anything on that? Did you see their face?"

Harry shook his head, sighing. "No, just the wand. Some ugly, knobbed thing. Not really helpful."

The healer across from him, reached over, jotting something down on a clipboard, humming.

"I know of someone who could probably help with that. Any particular memory you want to talk about? You looked like you lost track of where you were while going through your thoughts. Did something happen?"

Harry lifted the Puffskein up to his face, wrinkling his nose as it licked his cheek. It hopped onto his shoulder, nuzzling against his neck. He looked up at Alex, wetting his lips before speaking.

"Yeah, I got scared and it threw me off, way back. And everything was so much bigger than normal, I must have been a baby."

Alex leaned forward propping their head up on their fists, intently watching Harry.

"Harry, did you...see your parents?" They asked, their voice so soft that Harry barely heard them. He smiled slightly, the puffskein jumping on top of his head and nestling in his wild hair.

"My dad was there. With two other guys, but one was in the kitchen, so I only heard his voice. Another guy was out shopping with my mum, apparently. They kept trying to get me to walk over to them, and arguing over who I would walk to. So, I walked over to the guy my dad was with, and he picked me up and started dancing around. Called my dad 'Pokes' or something, I don't know."

Alex smiled slightly at the excited expression Harry had, waving his hands around as he explained how his mother had came home to see two grown men arguing over a baby as that baby just laid on the floor watching them and chewing on a wand.

"Do you know who that man was?"

Harry shrugged, the Puffskein tumbling off his head and landing in his lap. He picked it back up, putting it back on his shoulder. "I probably do, but I can't remember."

Alex stood, poking their head into the adjacent room and saying something as there was a loud crashing noise. They received a shouted apology, and looked at Harry, rolling their eyes.

"Grown ass man, yet he still manages to accidentally knock my stuff over while standing."

Harry covered his mouth, trying to contain his laughter. Alex sighed, opening the door wider so Harry could see the wizard hopping around the room, trying to get the bucket off his foot. He stopped jumping, looking at Alex and Harry, standing up tall. He walked into Alex's office and Alex sighed, walking into the room he had just vacated to pick up everything he had knocked over, since he had knocked even more over in the process of trying to fix everything.

"You're Narcissa's son."

Harry beamed as the wizard sat down across from him, nodding. "And who are you?"

He looked up at Harry, trying to tug the bucket off of his foot.

"Arcturus Black. Her great uncle, your great great uncle now."

"Black?"

Arcturus nodded, finally yanking the bucket off his foot with a grunt, setting it down beside him and settling back into Alex's armchair, looking at Harry. "Is the name familiar to you?"

Harry nodded slightly, his head tilted in interest. "Do you know a man named Sirius Black? My dad knew him."

A grin crossed Arcturus' face, and he nodded. "That's my grandson," he said before nodding his head towards Harry. "My grandson, and your godfather."

"What happened to him?"

Arcturus folded his hands, staring at Harry for a moment. Harry stared back, fighting the urge to squirm in his seat. Despite his initial impression as a silly old man who was clumsy, Harry could now feel the power almost radiating off of the man. He stayed silent, and Arcturus slowly spoke.

"He was sent to Azkaban for betraying the Potters and ultimately leading to their death as well as the murder of thirteen Muggles and one of his and James Potter's friends. However, they never gave him a trial."

Harry frowned, holding out his hand to catch the Puffskein as it dived off his shoulder. He set it down in his lap, gently petting it.

"How do you know he did it then?"

Arcturus smiled, shaking his head. "I don't think he did. Neither do your parents. So we managed to get him a trial. Tomorrow we'll find out if it was really him. Which, I doubt."

"How will the trial go?"

Arcturus sighed, tilting his head back and closing his eyes.

"It's been many years since I've attended a Wizengamot trial. But, as I remember, the person is brought in before the entire Wizengamot. The person on trial, and witnesses are questioned, sometimes evidence is presented, and then the court votes. Between Potter, Black, and Malfoy, a large section of the Wizengamot is controlled, so I don't see much trouble in getting an innocent verdict. Although, with Potter now under Malfoy jurisdiction until you turn seventeen..."

Arcturus seemed to get lost in thought, and Harry frowned. No wonder the papers had been going mental with all of the headlines about Sirius Black getting a trial. Harry hadn't cared and didn't bother to read any of them, but it explained the extra looks he was getting lately.

"Do you think they'll say he's guilty then?"

Arcturus focused his eyes on Harry, watching him. "The Ministry is a sucker for money. They'll say he's innocent even if I have to bribe every person in that room and get Rita Skeeter on them. He's suffered far too much already. I will not have that continuing."

Harry looked down at the Puffskein humming on his lap, his head lifting again when he heard Arcturus speak.

"Now, tell me, how do you feel about Quidditch?" Arcturus' eyes were practically twinkling, and Harry grinned, encouraged by the elderly wizard's smile.

"It's great, Draco and I watch every match at school, and we're top of our year in Flying."

They began trading stories of flying and Quidditch matches, Harry absolutely enthralled as Arcturus told him about the time that a Bludger followed him around the whole game and wouldn't leave him alone until he had whacked it so hard with his Beaters' bat that it had exploded.

"I may or may not have had my wand in my sleeve, and I may or may not be proficient at nonverbal spells, but we'll keep that between me and you."

Arcturus winked, and Harry laughed, nodding. Alex walked back into the office, covered in black soot, scowling.

"I don't even know what you knocked over, but you managed to make three potions mix and then blow up right next to me."

Arcturus looked at them before standing and picking up a cane, nodding at Harry.

"I need to leave, goodbye."

Alex huffed, turning to face him as he speed walked over to the fireplace.

"I'm not-"

"I'll pay for whatever I broke, Harry, I'll see you later!"

He stepped into the Floo, bowing as the flames took him away. Alex huffed, collapsing into the chair Arcturus had quickly vacated.

"I should get a raise for dealing with him. Lovely man, but his idea of fun was filling my entire office with Puffskeins."

Harry looked down at the now asleep Puffskein he was holding, and Alex pointed at it.

"I handed them out through the hospital, they're therapeutic, so people were happy, but I opened my door a few days ago and it was just an avalanche of fluff. I took like fifteen home."

Harry snorted, and the Floo flashed, Narcissa stepping out of it, looking at Alex. "Do I want to know?"

Alex shook their head as they stood, taking the Puffskein and blanket from Harry. Narcissa smiled, kissing their cheek.

"Just take a bath, yeah? Your clothes are the same colour as your hair."

Alex rolled their eyes, ruffling Harry's hair. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, Mum. Harry, make sure you go through your daily thoughts at the end of the day."

Harry made a face at Alex as they looked at him. "You tell me that every week."

Alex made a face back, and Narcissa smiled, pulling Harry to the fireplace.

"Alright, calm down you two."

They both made a face at Narcissa, and she just rolled her eyes, nudging Harry towards the fire.

"Ridiculous. Alright, I'm sure Draco's waiting for you back in the Common Room."

Harry smiled at her, hugging her before stepping into the flames, waving as they took him back to the green and silver room under the Black Lake, where, sure enough, Draco was waiting for him, half asleep. He immediately sat up, grinning.

"Wanna play chess?"

Harry groaned, almost walking back into the fire to escape being trounced by Draco again, despite Draco telling him every time they played that he was getting better.


	13. A Sirius Trial

Sirius groaned in relief as he stepped into the shower in his holding cell. He could hardly care that Amelia Bones was right outside his cell to make sure he didn't try to escape, he got to sleep on a bed and shower for the first time in ten years, he was ecstatic. He just kept the thought of the trial in the back of his head, preferring not to think about it, just in case he lost. Instead, he revelled in the joy of soap. 

He took his time washing his body and hair, changing into new, clean robes when he exited the shower. He brushed his hair, once again taking his time before pulling it up into a bun, resolving to get a haircut if he was declared innocent so it wasn't at his elbows.

"Are you ready yet?" Bones was standing at the door, watching him. 

Sirius nodded, stretching to his full height. Which, admittedly, wasn't overly impressive, but he was still almost six foot, so he would take it.

Bones opened the door, and Sirius exited the cell, his wrists immediately locking into place beside each other. He just held his head straight, deciding that if he was going to make an entrance, he was going to look good while doing it. 

So despite the fact that by the time he got to the doors of the Wizengamot he was panicking, he just kept a straight face, elegantly stepping into the room, sitting down in the single chair without complaint. The chains immediately moved and held him down, and his eyes swept across the room, noticing Narcissa, Lucius, and Arcturus all sitting in close proximity. He stared at his grandfather, who just smiled at him, his hands resting on top of a cane not dissimilar to Lucius'.

"Sirius Black."

Sirius turned his attention to Fudge, calmly watching him.

"Cornelius Fudge. I must say, I'm surprised you're the Minister. Bagnold left, then?"

Fudge turned red, looking through a stack of parchment, ignoring Sirius. He hid his face behind the paper, raising his voice and speaking. "The charges against the accused are as follows: That while he was Secret Keeper for Lily and James Potter, he gave their situation to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, subsequently leading to their death and the orphaning of their son, Harry Potter on the 31st of October in 1981. He then proceeded to track down one Peter Pettigrew into a Muggle neighbourhood and killed him along with twelve unarmed Muggles on the first of November in 1981. All of this was done while being a Death Eater, which we understand to be servants of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."

Sirius took in a slow breath, tuning out the sound of people muttering, one bold wizard shouting something at him. Fudge looked at him, and Sirius put in even more effort to keep himself composed, keeping his face straight.

"Do you have anything to say before we begin?"

Sirius just closed his eyes, smiling. "Did you ever cast Priori Incantatem on my wand?"

"Pardon?"

Sirius opened his eyes, grinning at Fudge. "I asked if anyone had ever cast Priori Incantatem on my wand. Because, if someone had, they would see that I had not cast anything that would blow up the street and kill thirteen people."

Fudge looked at Bones, who looked at an Auror that immediately left the room. Fudge looked at Sirius again, and Sirius just kept smiling, seeing that it was unnerving to the man before him.

"In the meantime, let us discuss your apparent betrayal of the Potters. They trusted you as Secret Keeper, did they not?"

Sirius nodded, keeping his eyes on Fudge, his smile slipping from his face. 

"They did."

Fudge grinned triumphantly, sitting up straighter.

"And then you subsequently betrayed that trust and told He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named of their position."

Sirius shook his head, frowning.

"I did not."

Fudge shook his finger, leaning forward. "Ah, but you were Secret Keeper. You were the only one who could have told anyone where they lived."

Sirius raised an eyebrow at Fudge, shaking his head again.

"I was not Secret Keeper at the time they were murdered. About a week after the Fidelus Charm was cast, I was afraid that Voldemort would suspect me of being the obvious choice as Secret Keeper and somehow force me to tell him where Lily and James were. I was paranoid. So they switched Secret Keepers. I didn't think Voldemort would suspect Peter, so we all agreed that he would be the new Secret Keeper."

"Peter Pettigrew?" Fudge asked, clearly not believing Sirius. Sirius just scowled and nodded. Fudge laughed, shaking his head. "Peter Pettigrew has been dead for ten years, Black, don't be ridiculous, you killed him yourself."

Sirius narrowed his eyes, and the Auror reentered the room, carrying a box. Amelia Bones took it from him, moving down to the floor where Sirius was so everyone could see her. Sirius kept his eyes on Fudge as she cast Priori Incantatem on the wand.

"Apparition spells?"

"I was hunting down Pettigrew," Sirius easily replied.

"Infant healing spell?"

"Harry's forehead was bleeding."

"Accio?"

"I couldn't find the keys for my motorbike."

Bones nodded, putting the wand away and looking at Fudge.

"There are no traces that he could have possibly killed anyone."

Fudge's face turned red, and Sirius kept a steady gaze on him. "He could have taken Pettigrew's wand."

"Nonsense, he was on the other end of the street, remember?"

"So, you're telling me Peter Pettigrew blew up the street and killed himself along with multiple people."

Sirius shook his head, sighing. "I'll tell you exactly what happened. He told his master where Lily and James Potter lived. They died, Voldemort was destroyed, and Harry lived. So I showed up at his flat. He ran, and I followed him until I had him cornered. I wanted to kill him, but I was just going to drag him to Azkaban myself if I had to and then get my godson. Because Harry wasn't safe with him around. I told him he had nowhere to go, so he yelled that I had killed the Potters and then blew up the street. I was knocked backwards across the road just in time to see him transform and leave through the sewer."

"Transform."

Sirius nodded, cracking his neck.

"He's a rat Animagus. He turned into a rat and left. Then the Aurors showed up, I couldn't chase him. I was in shock anyway. Then I was knocked out and woke up in Azkaban. Until today, I didn't even get a trial, as you know. I'll give you my memory of that entire ordeal if you want. It was only about two minutes."

Fudge looked at Bones, and someone wheeled out a Pensieve. Sirius closed his eyes as Bones put her wand to his ear, recalling the last ten minutes of his life before waking up in Azkaban. She pulled her wand away, and Sirius watched as she dropped the memory into the Pensieve, tapping it so that it projected above the basin.   
Sirius closed his eyes again, not caring to watch and see how stupid he had been. When it was over, Bones returned the memory to him, although Sirius could have done perfectly fine without it.

"It would appear...that we have enough evidence to come to a decision," Fudge said, clearly upset at having been wrong. 

Almost everyone in the room looked uncomfortable, no one but Narcissa, Lucius, and Arcturus looking directly at Sirius. He watched them, Bones' voice echoing throughout the large room. Sirius' heart began to pound, but he kept a straight face. Surely there was enough to acquit him.

"Those in favour of clearing the accused of all charges?"

If Sirius wasn't being held down by the chains on the chair, he would have jumped out of his seat and started dancing as nearly every hand in the room went up. His eyes focused on those that kept their hands down, all looking away from him, committing their faces to memory, narrowing his eyes at the one very familiar face.

"And those in favour of conviction?"

The remaining five or so hands went up, Fudge looking around before looking back at Sirius, face full of rightfully deserved shame. "Sirius Black, you are hereby cleared of all charges. I personally will meet with you to...discuss your...compensation."

The chains released Sirius, and he stood, calmly brushing himself off before indenting his head at Bones before leaving the room, immediately going into a bathroom, locking himself into a stall and crying in relief.

He was finally _free_.


	14. The Beginning of Reconciliation

Sirius sighed softly as Damel opened the door to Arcturus' study, letting him in. He sat down across from his grandfather, and the one-legged elf set down a tray of brownies on the desk before popping away.

"How's your Occlumency going?" Arcturus asked, in the middle of stirring his tea.

Sirius sighed, leaning back in the chair and blowing his hair out of his face. "You know I've never been any good at Occlumency. Bellatrix was your little prodigy. Bellatrix and Regulus. Narcissa and I suck at it."

 

Arcturus raised his eyebrow at Sirius, passing him a cup of tea.

"Don't sulk. The moment you started sulking because your little brother outshined you in something was the moment you gave up."

Sirius huffed as his hands closed around the cup, holding it tightly. "I'm not _sulking_."

Arcturus smiled, lifting his own cup. "You are. Now, tell me what's wrong."

Sirius watched Arcturus for a moment, suddenly feeling like he was five again and hiding from his mother with his grandfather so he could tell her to calm down.

"What if Harry doesn't like me?"

Arcturus set his cup down, leaning back in his own chair, thinking as he pulled his grey hair back into a long ponytail.

"Don't try and be a father to him. It's not what he needs from you. He has Lucius and Narcissa as his parents, and he loves them for it. Draco and Alex - I don't know if you've met Alex, you might have, considering your..." Arcturus looked Sirius up and down before shaking his head. "Anyway, Draco and Alex function as his siblings and he has friends. So just be his godfather, like you were meant to, Uncle, what was it, Padfoot or whatever."

Sirius stiffened as Arcturus said 'Padfoot'. No one had said that in ten years. If he remembered correctly, it had been James, telling him he'd see Sirius the next day and thanking him for helping he and Lily take Harry out for Halloween.

"I'm sure Harry will adore you."

Sirius shakily nodded, downing the entire cup of tea, slightly regretting it as it burned his throat on the way down. Arcturus frowned, shaking his head.  
"You really need a new coping mechanism that doesn't involve you immediately drinking the closest potable liquid. The amount of times I've had to pay a ridiculously large bar tab because of you..."

Sirius smiled slightly, setting the cup down. Arcturus sat up, holding out his arm as an owl flew through the open window. The owl gracefully landed on his arm, sticking out its leg so he could take the letter. He gave the owl a treat, and it flew to its perch in the corner of the room. Arcturus looked at Sirius, smiling.

"Speaking of Harry, it seems I've gotten a letter back from him."

Sirius' eyes lit up, and he leaned forward in interest. "You talk to him?"

Arcturus nodded as he opened the letter, his eyes scanning it.

"Yes, he's a lovely boy. He has a fascination with Quidditch...and dragons, like most eleven year old wizards. He thinks they're like flying snakes, and he wants to talk to one. And I don't disagree, dragons are great. Although, a flying snake is more like a wyvern than a dragon."

Sirius smiled slightly, thinking about the tiny boy he so often babysitted. "What did he say this time?"

"He says he's glad I didn't have to bribe the Wizengamot to get you an innocent verdict, and that he read the transcript of the trial in the _Prophet_. He thought you made some funny comments, and he's glad you're out of Azkaban because he would like to meet you sometime soon. He hopes you are recovering and well, and that you will write to him soon so you can get to know each other. And then he asked me how Damel lost her ear and leg, but I'll just have her tell him those stories when they meet."

"I don't even know how she lost her ear," Sirius realised, and Arcturus looked at him, quiet.

"Then you can hear the story with your godson. When Narcissa isn't around, and you are in your right mind."

Sirius frowned before Arcturus handed him a piece of parchment.

"What is this for?"

Arcturus just handed him a quill before pulling the tray of brownies to himself.

"Harry wanted you to write to him, so you best do that, because we have business to attend to, you and I." He promptly began helping himself to the brownies, and Sirius stared down at the parchment, unsure of what to write before he gave up and just began spilling his thoughts out onto the page.

_Harry-_

_I can't believe I've lost out on so much time with you, and I really, sincerely apologise for that. But the past is the past, and if you're willing to move on from that, then so am I. I might as well tell you a bit about myself, so you actually know something about me and don't have to rely on everyone else's stories for every bit of information._   
_I grew up in London, in a house that I despise to this day with my little brother, Regulus. Up until he started Hogwarts, we were best friends, and I did my best to protect him from anyone who might hurt him. When I started Hogwarts, I was Sorted into Gryffindor with your dad and our two other friends, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. We'd all met on the train, and for the next eleven years, we were all best friends (of course, clearly that went wrong, but none of us could have even expected that to happen in the September of 1970, when we'd all just met)._

_I have thousands of stories that I would be more than happy to tell you about your parents, not all of which I am proud of now, but you live and you learn, and if you can learn from my mistakes, then I'm doing my job._

_I'm not exactly sure what you would want to hear from me, I could give you advice on classes or exams, I could keep you updated on things that don't go in the Prophet, I could recommend you music, I could just tell you stories, anything you want really, kiddo. As long as it's not advice on girls, I can't do girls, I'm sorry. Not that you should need that anyway, you're only eleven._

_I'm staying with my granddad (Arcturus) at the moment, so if you write me, send his and my letters with the same owl, just to make it easier. I'm not sure if he lets owls that aren't his in yet._

_That's all I can really think to say right now, but I hope I can meet you soon. Maybe at Christmas, if Narcissa has Granddad and I over._

_-Sirius_

_(P.S.: If you ever need it, I have blackmail on Narcissa, she's my cousin, so I know some stuff about her that she might be a bit embarrassed about. Just so you have that knowledge in the back of your mind.)_

Sirius read the letter over before folding it and putting it in an envelope and handing it to Arcturus, who set it down next to his own letter. He stood, handing Sirius the last brownie.

"You still remember how family rituals work, yes?"

Sirius nodded, standing as well, eating the brownie as Arcturus pushed aside the bookcase directly behind his desk. Sirius followed him down the corridor that lit up as soon as Arcturus stepped foot into it, the two of them entering a large room.

He had only seen this room once in his life, and it was just as empty as he had remembered it. The Black family crest was on a banner hanging behind the altar on the other side of the room, and Sirius felt the urge to tear it down, only holding himself back by pure will. He followed his grandfather to the altar, passing the rows of chairs and kneeling next to him.

They methodically lit the candles, and Arcturus nodded, setting the knife down next to the bowl on the altar in front of them.

"Sirius Orion Black, will you accept the Black family magic and come back into the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black to be my Heir, and in doing so, do everything you can to uphold the honour of the Black family and what it stands for?"

Sirius looked up at the banner, _toujours pur_ ringing in his head. He always chose to interpret it as _toujours pur du coeur_ , rather than _toujours pur du sang_. He took in a deep breath despite the air being so thick in the room now that Arcturus' words had dripped with magic.

"I will."

His eyes seemed to fog over as the world in front of him tinted grey, the scent of metal surrounding him.

"Then I accept you and welcome you back into my family, thereby granting you the protection of the Black family magic and reclaimed status as Heir to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black."

Sirius closed his eyes, a vicious wind ripping through the wind. He opened his eyes, and Arcturus already had the knife in his hand. He sliced his palm, calmly speaking.

"With my blood, I grant my Heir the protection of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black."

Sirius nodded, taking the knife and slicing his own palm, watching the blood drip into the bowl for a second. "With my blood, I accept the protection of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black."

He set the knife down, their blood mixing and fading gold before draining from the bowl. Sirius looked at his palm, the golden line there shining brightly. He immediately put a glamour over it, standing up. Arcturus clapped him on the shoulder, grinning.

"Why don't we go out for dinner? There's this one place that opened in Muggle London about five years ago, tiny little place, but fantastic food. A Squib and her husband own it."

Sirius smiled, and Arcturus picked up his cane that was leaning against the altar, the two of them leaving the room.

"You know, Granddad, all you really need is a top hat and a fuzzy pimp jacket to complete your cane and ponytail ensemble."

Arcturus just laughed as they Apparated into London, guiding Sirius in the direction of the restaurant. "Believe me, I've considered it."

Sirius grinned, turning his head as he saw a vaguely familiar face. Arcturus just led him into the restaurant, talking up a storm about his favourite menu items. They were brought to a seat to eat, and despite the fact that it really was excellent food, Sirius couldn't get the face he saw out of his mind.


	15. Alliances and A Nightmare

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Super small chapter, tw for non explicit mentions of vomiting

Narcissa looked over as she heard fingers drumming on the wooden chairs in the Wizengamot chamber. She reached over, gently flicking Sirius' hand, and he looked at her, sighing and sitting up straighter as Fudge recapped the last meeting.

"Now, onto family business, anyone?" Fudge looked around, and a few people got up to announce births and marriages in their family, and then Narcissa looked at the three men around her nodding.

Lucius, Arcturus, and Sirius rose as one, striding down to Fudge, Sirius holding a piece of parchment in his hand. Fudge nodded, and Arcturus put his hand on Sirius' shoulder.

"I, Arcturus Sirius Black, have reinstated my grandson, Sirius Orion Black, back into the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, and have declared him to be my Heir."

Fudge marked that down on a piece of parchment, and then looked at Lucius, who rested his hands on his cane, turning his head and staring Dumbledore down, his shoulders back and head raised high.

"I, Lucius Abraxas Malfoy, with his permission and on behalf of my son, Harry James Potter-Malfoy, have delegated the position of Regent of the Noble House of Potter to his godfather, Sirius Orion Black."

Dumbledore popped a sherbet lemon into his mouth, turning his head towards Sirius, who was also staring Dumbledore down. In fact, so were Arcturus and Narcissa, a deceivingly sweet smile on her lips.

Fudge looked at Sirius, who just handed over the piece of parchment in his hand.

"The Noble House of Potter has requested an alliance with the Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Malfoy and Black. Both requests have been accepted."

Fudge sighed, setting the parchment down, nodding, the three men before him ignoring Dumbledore, who seemed dangerously close to choking on the candy in his mouth.

"Thank you, gentlemen."

The three turned around, striding back up to Narcissa, who patted her husband's knee, her eyes sweeping across the room to see a few people murmuring. "Good job, Lucius."

He took her hand, and the topic turned to laws that needed review. Sirius forced himself to stay awake, reminding himself that he was an adult that needed to act like one. But it was a bit hard when Lucius and Arcturus were tapping their canes along to the beat of some Celestina Warbeck song that Sirius had never cared for. It might have been amusing, if Sirius hadn't only gotten about two hours of sleep from constant nightmares.

Usually, it was the same nightmares over and over again, either the ones from the war, Lily and James dying, or him getting hauled back to Azkaban. Instead, he was just haunted by the feeling of being trapped in a small, dark place with nothing but screaming filling his ears. Vaguely familiar screams that he couldn't quite place his finger on, nor did he really care to do so.

He suddenly felt his stomach churn, and the urge to throw up overtook him. He took a slow breath, looking at the clock over the door. He just had to last five more minutes. His fist shot up in the air when Dumbledore called for a vote to adjourn the meeting, and Narcissa's eyes connected with his. Her eyebrow lifted, and he just closed his eyes, trying to keep his composure as it quickly crumbled.

Sirius stood, wavering, and Arcturus clapped his hand down on his grandson's shoulder, holding him still. "Breathe."

Sirius sucked in a gasp of air, and Narcissa walked over to him, holding out her arm. He linked his through hers, thankful for her being able to keep him upright without making him look like a weak fool. That was the last thing he needed.

They reached the Disapparition point, and Narcissa held onto him more tightly, Side-Along Apparating him, directly into a bathroom. Sirius didn't even care where he was, because he no longer had to stand, just kneel next to the toilet. Narcissa knelt next to him, pulling his hair back into a bun and rubbing his back, trying to soothe him.

When he was finally done, she handed him a toothbrush and a cup of water, and he immediately moved to brush his teeth and rinse his mouth out, blowing his nose quite hard before sliding down to sit on the floor against the wall. Narcissa sat next to him, pulling him into her side.

"It's okay. Just breathe. You'll be fine."

Sirius just rested his head on her shoulder, closing his eyes. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine, Sirius. How are you feeling?"

He shrugged, curling up in a ball. Narcissa just wrapped her arms around him, reminded of how Draco acted when he got sick. "Awful. I didn't really sleep last night, and now this-" He waved his hand towards the toilet, sighing. "It's not good."

Narcissa nodded, just holding him like she would when he was five years old and had a flu. "Do you feel ill, or just...awful?"

"Awful."

"That's okay. Do you want to talk about it?"

Sirius sighed, trying to think of a way to describe his nightmare.

"I was in a small dark place, and all I could hear was screaming. Every time I tried to sleep."

Narcissa froze, and Sirius opened his eyes, looking at her.

"Are you-"

She just shook her head, rubbing Sirius' back. "If you never fully remember, it's for the better. I promise."


	16. The Night Sky

Sirius shot straight up in bed, gasping for air. He closed his eyes, his fingers twisting in his covers.

"Bloody hell..."

He pressed his hands into his eyes, the heels of his palms rubbing stars into his vision. He pulled his wand out from under his pillow, checking the time, groaning when he saw that it was only two in the morning. He'd only slept for half an hour, _again_.

Sirius got out of bed, almost immediately tripping and landing on his face. He sighed, staring at the scarlet carpet below him for a few minutes before pushing himself back up, holding onto the nightstand beside his bed to keep steady. The newspaper on it caught his attention, and he realised that Damel must have placed it there after he had essentially passed out from exhaustion just after lunch.

He made his way over to the bathroom on the other side of the room, trying to brush his teeth before his hands started shaking again. He could feel the almost Dementor-like feeling settling in his chest no matter how hard he tried to shove it away.

He only had one thing on his mind, and if that didn't work, he was either going to lock himself in St. Mungo's or toss himself off the roof.

_**§§§§§§** _

Remus sighed as he pulled himself up out of bed, looking at the clock next to him. It was almost three in the morning. Which meant that the knocking wasn't the landlord kicking him out, at the very least. He picked up his wand, holding it behind his back as he approached the door.

"Who is it?" He called, not really expecting an answer. It was more than likely just one of the rude Muggle kids that lived next door that seemed to live to mock him.

"Have you read the _Evening Prophet_ , Moony?"

Remus felt his blood freeze, and he rested his forehead against the door, reminding himself again that it wasn't Sirius. Every magical being with half a brain cell knew that now.

"What do you want, Sirius?"

"It's snowing."

Remus opened the door, immediately moving forward to catch Sirius as he stumbled forward.

"Merlin, when was the last time you slept?"

Sirius shrugged, leaning against Remus for a moment before flopping onto the couch. "I haven't been able to sleep well for about two weeks now. I got like three good nights of sleep after being cleared, and now everything is shit."

Remus stared down at him for a moment before nodding. "Give me a second."

He left the room, going back to his bedroom and dragging the weighted blanket into the living room, carefully draping it over Sirius. Sirius closed his eyes, and Remus looked around the dark room, flipping on the light before clearing his throat.

"I'm gonna go put my binder on. I'll be right back. Do you need anything?"

Sirius shook his head, and Remus went back to his room, picking up his binder that was now mostly held together by his charm work because it was so old and stretched out. He pulled his shirt off and then stepped into his binder, pulling it up over himself and adjusting it, reapplying the compression charms that seemed to wear off far too quickly now. He put his t-shirt back on, heading into the living room and sitting down beside Sirius, who was silent and staring at a wall.

"I thought you would have had surgery by now."

"I can't afford it. I can have surgery or the flat. Not both. I need a place to live."

Sirius nodded, looking at Remus. "How have you been?"

Remus sighed, shrugging. "I've been."

Sirius smiled slightly, closing his eyes again.

"I meant to come sooner, but I haven't been..." He waved his hand in the air, trying to come up with the words. "...all there."

"Neither of us ever really have been. It's fine. I know you weren't ignoring me when I saw you and your granddad. You're busy now, I try to be busy. It's fine."

Sirius sighed softly, sinking back into the couch, eyes still shut. "I've been writing to Harry. He's...so grown. More like Lily than James could have ever hoped. They'd be proud, even if his best friend is a Malfoy."

"Well, you said it yourself, he's like Lily. She was damn near in Slytherin herself."

Sirius nodded, still babbling on. "He said he's friends with a Muggleborn girl in Gryffindor. She sung Dumbledore's praises until Harry told her that he was the one that left her with the Dursleys. Draco doesn't like her much apparently, but Harry drags him around to hang out with her because she doesn't really have friends. He says Draco's warming up to her, it's a bit funny."

Remus stayed quiet, letting him talk about everything Harry had been telling him, from the Puffskein that Harry's Healer let him cuddle to the food fight that the Weasley twins had started during lunch. He knew from years of knowing the other wizard that once he got everything out of his brain, he could calm down and say what was wrong. It just took time.

"I'm just so happy I didn't ruin everything, Harry's still happy, and he has friends and people who love him, and he doesn't hate me, and he told me that Wormtail isn't my problem-"

Sirius took in a shuddering breath, and Remus reached out, rubbing his back.

"Everything's fine. Try and breathe. You're shaking again."

Remus pulled Sirius to his chest, letting Sirius time his breathing with Remus' heartbeat. Remus wasn't ideal for the situation, since his heartbeat was faster than a normal person's. Usually this was James' job, or Peter's, or even Lily's, but it still seemed to be helping, at least a little.

"Thank you."

"Mmhm. Do you want to talk more?"

"What have you been doing?"

Remus sighed, closing his eyes. "Well, I stayed in our flat, you can see that. I was planning on using the money Lily and James left in the will to get hormones and surgeries. Keep myself alive at least, if not that."

"The Ministry blocked you?"

He nodded, drumming his fingers on Sirius' back. "Let's just say, they're not really...fond of the idea of a trans werewolf having enough money to reasonably support themselves and be happy."

"I'm sorry. I'll-"

Remus smiled slightly. "I told you several times in our lives that I'm not taking your money for myself."

"I told you, my money is your money."

"You're so damn stubborn."

Sirius pushed himself up, grinning. "Hey, you love it though."

His face dropped slightly, and he ran his fingers through his hair. "Or...you did, rather."

Remus stared at him for a moment, the two of them silent. Remus moved his hand, picking up his wand, discretely making an arc with it, opening his hand as a box landed in it.

He held it out to Sirius, looking down. "Mad-Eye gave this to me when you got arrested. If you want it back..."

Sirius immediately took the ring box from Remus, opening it up and handing it back.

"This is your job, remember? Just...no Harry falling down Lily and James' stairs this time."

Remus smiled, rolling his eyes. "You were meant to be watching him."

"He was taking a nap." Sirius huffed, crossing his arms. Remus laughed, and that only served to make him pout more.

"Alright, calm down you baby."

Sirius looked at him expectantly, and Remus shook his head, still smiling. "Fine, fine. Sirius, will you give me tax benefits?"

"Hey!"

Remus just grinned, and Sirius rolled his eyes, dramatically holding out his hand so Remus could slide the ring onto his finger for the second time. Sirius grinned, leaning forward and kissing Remus' cheek.

Morning found them curled up asleep on the couch, empty tea cups on the coffee table and some show neither of them cared about on television.

Meanwhile at Hogwarts, morning found Harry narrowly avoiding tripping over Mrs Norris, and then sitting at the bottom of a staircase, glaring at Draco, who was doubled over laughing at his brother for slipping and falling down three steps.

  



	17. The Duel Behind Greenhouse One

Harry raised his eyebrows as someone bumped into him as he left the bathroom. He looked up, frowning when he saw the red hair and freckles.

"Excuse _me_."

Ron Weasley looked down at him, a frown matching Harry's forming.

"Where's your brother and his bookends?"

Harry rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. "I can do things by myself, you know. Unlike you, constantly trailing after your older brothers. Think on your own for once, why don't you?"

Weasley's ears turned red, his fingers curling into fists. "You wanna insult me, huh? How about we settle this then? A duel. In the Trophy Room, midnight tonight. You bring a second, and I'll bring one."

Harry tilted his head, smiling.

"If we duel, it's on my terms," he said, holding up his hand to silence Weasley as he opened his mouth. "You challenged me, I pick the time and location, since you're obviously mad. Behind the greenhouses at dinner, no one will look for a couple of first years then, and we won't get caught. Because, unlike you, I'm not mental."

Harry pushed past him, heading back down to the Slytherin Common Room, where Daphne was pointing to something in Draco's textbook, apparently explaining something to him. Harry sat down on the couch, watching Greg and Vince's game of Exploding Snap as he waited for Draco to finish his homework before getting up and sitting next to him.

"I need you to help me out with something."

Draco groaned, shoving his textbook away. "Look, if it's the History homework, go ask Daphne, she actually manages to pay attention in class."

Harry rolled his eyes, shaking his head.

"No, I need you to help me duel Weasley during dinner behind the greenhouses. And before you say anything, he wanted to do it at midnight in the Trophy Room, so I figured this was better. And if he doesn't show up, we can just go to dinner. It makes more sense."

Draco sighed, running his fingers through his hair.

"Fine," he agreed. "I'll be your second when you kick his arse. But if you get me in trouble, I'm kicking _your_ arse."

Harry snorted, standing as Pansy called his name. "Please, Mum'll kick both of our arses if I get either of us in trouble."

Draco just grinned at him, turning towards Blaise as he scribbled something out in his notes after comparing it to his textbook. Harry sat next to Pansy where she was sitting on a pillow in the corner of the room, taking her Defense essay from her and pointing out what she had gotten wrong.

_**§§§§§§** _

When it was finally time for dinner, evening found Harry and Draco behind Greenhouse One, where they'd had Herbology earlier that day. Both were leaning against the glass, waiting.

"This is ridiculous, you know that?" Draco complained, "It's freezing out here, and I doubt he'll even show. He's a pig, you know that, he always eats. Why would he miss dinner to come out here?"

Harry huffed, his warm breath immediately fogging up his glasses. he took them of, cleaning them on his robes. With numb fingers - even despite his warm gloves - he slid the glasses back onto his face, speaking as he did.

"He's a Gryffindor, not a coward. He'll show. Whether he has a second or not."

As soon as the words had left Harry's mouth, another person joined them. Harry straightened up, his hands in his robe pockets, both to grasp the handle of his wand, and for warmth.

"You're late."

Weasley huffed, stopping a few feet away from them. He pulled his wand out of a pocket of the robes that were just a bit too small on him, meeting Harry's gaze.

"My brothers were concerned that I didn't want to go to dinner." He shot a look at Draco before looking back at Harry, his head held high. "Not that you'd know what having an actual family who is concerned about you is like, would you?"

Harry looked at Draco, who had his eyes trained on Weasley. He turned his own gaze back to the ginger, taking out his wand, comfortably holding it, even with numb fingers.

"Are we duelling or not, Weasley?"

Weasley nodded, backing up more so he was about ten feet from where Harry and Draco were stood. Draco snorted, and Weasley pointed his wand at them.

"Your father would turn in his grave if he knew you were fighting a Light family."

Harry shook his hair out of his face, staring the other boy down, trying to keep his cool.

"I don't know what you mean, Lucius Malfoy is doing just fine, I saw him on Saturday. He took me out to lunch, after all. Family bonding."

Draco grinned at Harry, looking almost proud. "Exactly, Weasel. Unlike you, our father actually has time for his children. Maybe if your mother hadn't popped out seven kids like a machine, you'd see them more."

Weasley's ears turned red, and he stepped closer.

"I see my mum and dad often enough. Honestly though, yours should be ashamed, Malfoy. Trying to take over the place of the Potters. And now you've got the Blacks in it too."

Harry frowned, raising his eyebrows as he took a slow breath to stay calm. "Sirius and Arcturus Black are lovely people. Unlike you and your...clan."

"I have a wonderful family!"

Harry lifted his wand towards Weasley, Draco leaning against the greenhouse again.

"And, as it so happens, so do I. Now, do you just plan to stand there and argue with me all day?"

Weasley squared back his shoulders, sticking his chin out. "No."

He yelled something, and sparks flew at Harry. Harry easily sidestepped to avoid them, continuing to dodge as he just watched Weasley send jinxes he had no doubt learned from growing up with five older brothers.

Draco looked between Weasley and Harry, frowning. "Harry, what are you waiting for?"

Harry shrugged, turning so the newest jinx missed him. "He keeps moving forward every time he casts a spell. So, he'll get tired after a while, and by the time he does, I can levitate a stick or something and hit him hard enough to win or something. I'll figure it out. Maybe I can imitate something he's doing?"

Draco half nodded, still watching Weasley, who was now only about four feet from Harry. But years of evading punches from Dudley had worked out in Harry's favour, and he was almost effortlessly dodging the slowly cast, simple jinxes.

"C'mon, Potter, your dad faced You-Know-Who without a wand, the least you would do is fight me with one."

Harry rolled his eyes, sliding away from a sluggish, red beam of light.

"What did I already tell you? My father is Lucius Malfoy. James Potter is half of the reason why I exist, and I'm grateful that he did that much and loved and protected me until he died. But he didn't raise me, and my father will have a part in raising me."

Weasley looked at Harry in disgust. "The-Boy-Who-Lived gone Dark. I can't believe you'd stand up for people who fought against your parents!" He spat.

Harry was fed up with Weasley at this point, and he held onto his wand tighter, racing through his mind for something that he could use against the other boy.

"They _are_ my parents!"

Weasley's face was red from the old, but there was no doubt in Harry's mind that part of the colour was from yelling now.

"They're murdering scum, and the way you damn near worship them is showing how they're just manipulating, lying, disgusting-"

Harry felt an anger worse than any he'd ever felt before flare up inside of him. Not even the Dursleys had made him feel this angry. He couldn't even hear Weasley now, all he could hear was his blood pounding in his ears.

How _dare_ this boy talk about his family? The woman who had been the most caring person he'd ever met? The boy who - while arrogant and rude at times - had been nothing but a great brother and friend? The man who had immediately accepted Harry into his family and called him son?

What right did Weasley have to criticise any of them?

Harry spun around, threw his wand to Draco, and then turned back towards Weasley, leaping at him with his right fist already drawn back.


	18. Split Lips and Dinner Trips

Narcissa Malfoy rushed out of the Hospital Wing Floo, Madame Pomfrey immediately at her side.

"Lady Malfoy, there was absolutely no need for you to come all the way-"

"Nonsense. Where are my sons?" Narcissa asked, not seeing Harry or Draco in the room, although she could see the bright red hair of a Weasley attached to a boy curled up on a bed in a small ball, another, blond boy sitting next to him, holding his nose and talking.

Pomfrey silently pointed to a bed with a closed curtain around it before moving over to the Weasley boy and the one trying to comfort him.

Narcissa crossed over to the bed Pomfrey had pointed at, tearing the curtain open. The two boys inside had been talking to each other, but their grins dropped from their faces at the sight of the angry woman before them.

"Harry James, Draco Lucius, what in the name of Merlin were you two _thinking_?"

Harry's mouth opened, but he quickly closed it as Draco held up his hands.

"I can explain."

Narcissa raised her eyebrows, looking back and forth between her boys. "Please, I'd love to hear an explanation of why you were caught outside during dinner bashing in the Weasley boy's face."

Harry lifted his head, having been staring at his lap.

"He wanted to duel."

"Duels are not fought by punching your opponent. That is a brawl."

Harry's shoulders sank as he looked back down at where his hands were folded in his lap.

"Mum, Harry was just trying to defend the family honour," Draco said, clearly not wanting Narcissa to be upset at them. "We haven't exactly learnt enough magic to give Weasley what he deserved with our wands, so..."

"And the Longbottom boy?" Narcissa asked, pointedly glancing at where Neville Longbottom was sitting across the room, pointing out a cut on the back of his head to Madame Pomfrey.

Draco turned red, mumbling. "We didn't notice he was hiding there as Weasley's second, so when he tackled me, I was defending myself. I didn't mean to break his nose. Or the wall of the greenhouse."

Narcissa sighed, rubbing her hand over her face.

"Harry."

Harry looked up at her, and she frowned, eyes scanning the black eye and busted lip her son had sustained. Draco had a nasty lump on his head from getting knocked into the greenhouse by Longbottom.

Harry, however, along with the constantly splitting lip and black eye, also had only one lens in his glasses. The other had shattered when Weasley's fist had made acquaintance with Harry's eye. That had left him with both the black eye and a cut in his eyebrow, dried blood going down the side of his face.

Narcissa ignored the blood smudging his knuckles from Weasley's face, her eyes instead drifting to the bruise covering his cheek. She sat down. "Explain to me, in your words, why you physically fought him."

Harry frowned, sitting up straighter. "He was calling you - all of you, even Sirius and Arcturus - awful things."

Narcissa took a slow breath, glancing at a solemnly silent Draco.

"Like what?"

Harry huffed, and Narcissa almost smiled at how he shook his hair from his eyes before speaking. Maybe she should schedule a hair appointment for him over winter holiday.

"He said you were scum and murderers that were brainwashing me. And that you weren't my parents. Basically, that you're bad people. Which I know is wrong, you're all so nice to me."

Narcissa stiffened, looking down at Harry as he stared up at her, looking intensely determined. She resolved to talk to Lucius later, instead folding her hands together.

"I am honoured that you think so highly of us. However, you were caught. So you _will_ be punished. And I will not intervene. Draco, this means you as well. You allowed your brother to act in a way that has repercussions, and you were also caught in an act of violence. Madame Pomfrey will not heal your wounds since you two got off easily on that front, and neither will I. That way you will have a visual reminder of what you did. Furthermore, when holiday is over, you will serve whatever detention is given to you. Do you understand?"

Harry quietly nodded, and Draco didn't look all-too pleased, but he also conceded.

Narcissa smiled, standing. "Very well. Now, seeing as how the Hogwarts Express leaves tomorrow morning, I don't see why I shouldn't be able to take you home now."

The two boys' faces lit up, and Narcissa grimaced as another person entered the Wing, patting her sons on their heads.

"Run along, get cleaned up. Harry, make sure you get your spare glasses and make a note to remind me to get you another pair. Draco, I know you didn't finish packing yet. I have last minute shopping to finish, so change into warmer robes. I'll have Dobby get your trunks when you return."

The two quickly left, and Narcissa adjusted her robes, crossing the room to the clearly distressed woman talking to Madame Pomfrey.

"Madame Weasley, I understand that your son challenged mine to a duel, getting the children into this mess. I'd like you to have a word with your son about overestimating himself and then further provoking my son. Just so I don't have to deal with this again. Besides, he should know his limits. It'll keep him safer in the long run."

The red haired woman seemed to flare up with anger, and she put her hands on her hips as she whirled around to look at Narcissa.

"My son is very competent! Besides," she shot a dirty look at Narcissa, lifting her head up more. "Harry Potter is in no way your son. He needs a proper family anyway. With people that actually care for and won't exploit him."

Narcissa just smiled, but no emotion showed through the upturning of her lips.

"I agree that he needs a proper family. Which is why Lucius and I have adopted him. I love him as much as I love Draco, as does my husband."

Narcissa looked Molly Weasley up and down, frowning. "Besides, we can easily provide for him. Unlike...some others."

The emotionless smile returned, and she turned, going back to the bed Harry and Draco had vacated, sitting down and ignoring the sputtering woman staring at her. Harry and Draco returned a few minutes later, and Molly looked at Harry, almost in sympathy. Harry saw her, shrinking back behind Draco, who Molly looked almost disgusted with.

"Dobby."

The small house elf that Harry rarely saw Apparated in before them, bowing before Narcissa.

"Mistress."

"Retrieve the boys' trunks, and take them to their bedrooms at home," Narcissa commanded.

"Yes, Mistress."

He Disapparated, and Narcissa nodded, placing a hand on each of her sons' shoulders, guiding them to the Hospital Wing fireplace. She nodded at Pomfrey as Draco Flooed out, Harry following him.

"Madame."

Pomfrey nodded back, and Narcissa turned towards the green fire, stepping closing her eyes as she spun through the Floo Network, stepping out into her study.

"No, leave that."

Harry smacked Draco's hand away from a tray of pastries that Narcissa had been absentmindedly snacking on before she had left.

"Be gentle, boys," she admonished, and Harry just gave her an innocent smile as Draco stole a small cake off the tray, stuffing it into his mouth as Harry turned around again.

"Oh, how very _refined_ of you, Draco."

Draco rolled his eyes, and Narcissa smiled, pulling on her jacket.

"Your father is at Gringotts, so we'll meet him in Diagon Alley. I think we'll surprise him and go out to dinner before finishing up Christmas shopping," Narcissa explained as she led them down the stairs to the parlour. "Does that sound good to you two?"

Harry and Draco nodded in affirmation, and each took one of Narcissa's hands. Harry braced himself, and with a turn and an uncomfortable squeezing sensation, they were at the entrance of Diagon Alley.

"Draco?" Narcissa prompted.

Draco smiled proudly, taking out his wand and tapping the bricks on the wall before them.

"Alright, both of you, behind me, stay close, it's crowded. Harry, you may want to put your hood up or look down."

Harry nodded, falling into step next to Draco. He pulled his hood up as they approached Gringotts, Lucius inside, talking to a goblin teller.

Narcissa got into line behind her husband, waiting until he was done talking to make her presence known.

"I have a surprise."

Lucius turned around, smiling when he saw Harry and Draco. "Boys, nice of you to join us!"

A grin split across Harry's face, and he immediately winced, putting his hand over his lip as it began bleeding. Although he had quickly cleaned up while Draco had been packing, his lip still kept splitting.

"What happened to you two?" Lucius asked as he noticed the injuries his sons had sustained.

Narcissa put her hand on Lucius' arm as he took a paper from the goblin, the four heading towards the doors. "How about we save the story for dinner?"

He nodded, and they went down a side street in Diagon, entering a restaurant called Celestial Cuisine. Harry hadn't ever seen it before, and as they sat down, Draco leaned over to him.

"They supposedly have 'a bit of the stars in every bite'. Which is about as true as half of what you hear from Pansy. But it's still good."

Harry nodded, looking down at the menu and feeling completely out of his element. Lucius taking him out to lunch at a small sandwich place and a family dinner at a restaurant with food from around the world were two very different experiences. He hadn't even heard of most of the items on the menu.

Harry looked at Draco, hesitating for a moment. "What are you getting?"

Draco was now looking through the desserts, clearly more interested in those than the main course.

"I'm thinking chicken marsala, but you're allergic to mushrooms, so you can't have it."

Lucius closed his own menu, looking at Harry.

"You like noodles, right?"

Harry nodded, and Lucius smiled. "Then I think I know something you might like. Have you ever heard of pancit bihon?"

"No."

Lucius opened his menu again, flipping through the pages and then holding it up so Harry could see. "They're very thin noodles, so they're almost transparent after it's cooked. It's served with chicken and vegetables in it usually, it's very good."

Harry stared at the picture, thinking. It honestly didn't look bad at all, so he nodded. Narcissa told Lucius what she wanted, and excused herself to the toilet.

She returned just before the waiter came back with the food, and she stared out of the window, stirring her straw in her pink lemonade.

"Mum, are you alright?"

Narcissa looked at Draco, and Harry felt a bit unnerved by the way her eyes seemed to stare right through him.

"Christmas is so soon," she whispered, and Harry looked at Lucius, half-panicked.

Lucius was already looking at his wife. He took her hand, leaning towards her and speaking softly enough that Harry and Draco couldn't hear them.

Harry turned to Draco as their food was set down, glancing briefly at Narcissa.

"Is she okay?" He whispered, and Draco looked at their mother before looking back at Harry.

"Honestly," he said, also whispering. "I'm not sure. She gets like this every year around Christmas. It's just...not a good time for her. Any of us, but mostly Mum. We just try to be there for her as much as possible."

Harry nodded slightly, calming a bit as Narcissa began eating, seeming to have regained control of herself. She asked Harry how he was doing in Charms, recalling that he had been struggling with the homework a few days previous.

As Harry laid down to go to bed that night, he had quite a few things on his mind:

Whether or not everyone would enjoy their Christmas gifts from him.

Draco's face when he almost slipped down the icy stairs leading into Knockturn Alley.

The throbbing in his split lip now that he wasn't distracted by talking or eating.

How Christmas upset his mother so much that it totally changed her strong personality.

But, mostly, he was thinking about how good the pancit was and how he'd have to thank his father for recommending it to him.


	19. A Holiday of Revelation

_**Narcissa looked down at the letter that dropped onto her desk, frowning at the handwriting on the front of it. She held it by a corner, as far away from her body as she could, raising her wand and using a precisely aimed Diffindo to open it. A single piece of parchment fluttered out, onto the ground, and she picked it up, turning it over. A paw print stood out at the bottom of the page, but she ignored it, looking at the words.** _

_**'** _ _**Narcissa -'** _

_**Narcissa dropped the letter, quickly picking it back up again and holding it tightly.** _

_**'This probably seems like a cruel joke, doesn't it? I swear to you, it isn't. The date is January 23, 1980, and whatever you were told about me regarding a particular incident last year was a lie. But I can trust you. You're having a son soon, I've heard. Knowing you, you'd do worse than kill to keep him safe. So here is what you need to know...'** _

_**§§§§§§** _

  
_**"C'mon Draco, put that down, Mummy needs it."** _

_**Draco looked up at Narcissa from where he was sitting on her desk, chewing on the envelope that she had just retrieved from a now familiar barred owl.** _

_**"Muh manabah."** _

_**She sighed, gently trying to tug it from the one year old's iron grasp. "I just need it for a few minutes, love."** _

_**The small wizard's pale eyes met hers for a moment, and he opened his mouth, letting the envelope go.** _

_**"Mumum." He held the letter out to her, and she smiled, kissing the top of his head.** _

_**"Thank you."** _

_**'Narcissa-** _

_**I don't think words could possibly explain the joy I feel knowing that he's finally dead. At the expense of some of the finest of magical folk and a child's happiness, but he's gone.** _

_**However, I still think it best that I stay here, especially considering the fishy situation around my kin. I'm trying to discretely poke my nose in, but it doesn't seem all right. Then again, I have never been a man of the law, unlike you. Woman of all talents. I envy you that.** _

_**Nonetheless, as always, I send you and yours my love.'** _

_**§§§§§§** _

Narcissa sat down heavily on her bed, her splitting headache that had begun at dinner when one of her most unpleasant memories had visited her finally subsiding. The bed sank next to her as Lucius sat beside her, taking her hand into his.

"How are you feeling, love?"

She looked over at him for a moment, eyes scanning his face before she leaned into him. "You know."

Lucius wrapped his arm around her, rubbing her side before shifting behind her and pulling her hair back so he could hold it in one hand.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked gently as he began the slow process of braiding his wife's hair.

"It's just more of the same. I looked at Draco and Harry earlier and they were just so comfortable with each other. It reminded me of when Draco was little and he asked for a sibling for Christmas. I'm ridiculous." Narcissa sighed, rubbing her hands over her face, eyes shut.

"Of course you aren't. You can be ridiculous at times, such as when you decided to invite everyone over for Christmas last minute and then rush around making plans over the course of an hour, but you are not a ridiculous person. I would know, we've been married almost fifteen years now."

Narcissa smiled slightly, tilting her head back to look at her husband. "When do you think we should tell Harry?"

"About what?"

"Anything."

Lucius hummed, quiet for a moment as he thought. "I think he'll find out about Dan on Christmas, if he asks, one of us can explain to him. My Mark though..." He let out a heavy breath, swearing softly. "I don't want him to hate me already, you know? That's supposed to come from puberty. I'll own up to it, wear short sleeves or something. I'll initiate it if he doesn't ask."

"He needs to know. Draco avoided us for weeks when you told him until he understood, he can help Harry. I hope..."

Lucius said nothing, instead leaning forward and kissing Narcissa's cheek after tying up her braid.

Dobby popped into the room, and they both looked at him. He quickly walked towards Narcissa, head bowed. "Mistress, this letter came for you in your office."

She took it, opening it and groaning at the eight words and the paw print on the parchment, flopping back onto her bed.

"Readjust everything to accommodate one more."

"Yes, Mistress." Dobby popped off, and Lucius leaned over to look at the letter in his wife's hand.

"What's significant about a blank parchment? Or is it spelled?"

She held it up in front of her face. "' _I am on my way. Disregard my cancellation._ '"

Lucius just laughed, shaking his head. "Right, well, best off to bed with both of us."

Narcissa nodded, getting up and tossing the parchment into the fireplace before getting back into bed. She could already tell that Christmas would be a longer day than she had expected.

  
_**§§§§§§** _

 

Harry groaned as weight suddenly hit him full force. He opened his eyes, groaning and trying to wiggle out from under Draco.

"C'mon, I was sleeping."

"It's Christmas!" Draco crowed, only for Harry to shove him off and scramble out of bed, grabbing his glasses.

"It's like six in the morning!"

Draco just laughed, grabbing Harry's arm and pulling him out of his room and down the stairs to the living room where Narcissa and Lucius looked a bit half asleep where they were sitting on the floor by the tree.

"Good morning Harry. Happy Christmas."

"Happy Christmas, Harry."

Harry smiled, walking over to both of his parents and hugging them before sitting down beside Draco. Lucius stood, setting down his cup of coffee on a table before sitting next to the tree, leaning over to play Santa and pass out the presents.

"Alright, let's see, this is for Harry, Draco, Draco, Harry..." He continued on until there were two massive piles before each boy and Harry's jaw was hanging open. He hadn't ever seen anyone get as many presents as were sitting before him, not even Dudley.

Draco reached over and shut Harry's mouth, smiling slightly. "Pixies."

Harry nodded slightly, looking at Narcissa and Lucius, both of whom gestured for him to begin opening the presents beside him. Harry reached out and took a present just as Draco did, following Draco's example in tearing the paper open.

In the end, he received several books, most of which he had asked for, a few of which Draco had seen him eyeing in the Library and so told his parents about. Quite a few were on different Wizarding topics, and Draco had laughed when he opened one on politics. ("Only you would be excited over a book on dead Ministers.")

Along with those, however, he'd also received a new quill set to replace the quills he had that were starting to get rather tattered after daily usage.

Lucius pulled out two more presents from behind the tree, holding them out to his sons.

"Last ones, here you go, boys."

The two stood, reaching out and unwrapping their final gifts, both turning to each other and yelling as they realised that they had both gotten Nimbus 2000s. Lucius grinned at their delight, grunting softly as they both hugged him tightly.

"Now you can stop stealing your mum's broom from her, Harry."

Harry just laughed, releasing Lucius to hug Narcissa as well. "Thank you."

Narcissa and Lucius opened their presents, both fawning over the gifts their sons had gotten them before ushering the kids into the dining room, Dobby Apparating in to take the gifts to their room as they ate.

The Malfoy family was still in their pajamas when the fireplace flared up and Sirius walked out of it, carrying a stack of presents. Arcturus followed him, holding his own small stack. An unfamiliar man walked out behind him, bending down to pick up the gifts that were falling out of Sirius' arms.

"Happy Christmas!" Sirius called out from behind his stack of presents, almost tripping over the pajama pants that were clearly too big for him. Lucius stood, taking the top half of the stack off his hands. The four men disappeared off into the living room, and Narcissa herded the two eleven year olds out after them.

Sirius turned towards Harry after the young wizard had hugged Arcturus. "Harry, I'd like to introduce my fiancé, Remus Lupin."

Harry looked at Remus, walking up to him and holding out his hand. "Hello, Remus, I'm Harry."

Remus smiled, shaking Harry's hand. "Hello Harry. I haven't seen you in many years, but Sirius has been keeping me updated. How's your Defense class?"

Harry's eyes lit up, and Remus noticeably relaxed as the eleven year old began babbling excitedly about the theory work he had learnt in class and how he wanted to apply it.

"Have you gotten to magical creatures yet?" Remus asked tentatively, and he felt Sirius turn and look at him from across the room where he was helping Draco stuff more presents under the tree to open later when everyone had arrived.

Harry paused, scrunching up his nose as he thought back to his previous classes, finding it a bit easier now than it had been in previous months thanks to Alex's Occlumency lessons. "A little bit. Mostly like Bowtruckles and ghosts and hags. Nothing scary like werewolves."

Remus' heart sank as Harry generalised all werewolves as scary, nodding slightly. "Well, you'll get to more advanced things in time. After all, you still have six and a half years."  
Harry grinned, whirling around as Draco called him a nerd from across the room. Harry ran over to the couch, grabbing a pillow and chasing his brother with it as Draco took off running.

Narcissa looked over her shoulder, shaking her head and calling out to them, "Boys, no running in the house, take it outside!" She turned her head towards Sirius and Remus, smiling softly. "Would you two terribly mind watching them? They got brooms, so I'm sure they want to fly."

Both former Gryffindors shook their heads, each taking a broom and heading outside after the eleven year olds, finding that Harry was now using his pillow as a shield as Draco threw messily formed snowballs at him.

"Hey, kiddos! Your mum said you could fly if you want!"

The two dashed over, taking the brooms and immediately shooting off, occasionally diving to grab snow to throw at each other. Remus stared up at them, smiling slightly.

"James would shit himself seeing this."

Sirius looked at him for a moment, absently nodding as he looked back up at his godson and cousin. "Because his son is a Slytherin and a Malfoy, or because he's obscenely good at flying?"

"Yeah."

Sirius smiled slightly, wrapping his arm around Remus' waist before jumping as hands slammed down onto his shoulders. He whirled around, wand out, relaxing when he saw Arcturus.

"Merlin, Granddad, you scared the hell out of me."

Arcturus just grinned, looking up at the boys who were now rapidly descending, holding out his arms as Harry crashed into him, hugging him tightly. Arcturus waved his hand towards Draco, who joined the hug. He patted their backs, grinning. "Getting ready to make the League, are you?"

Draco grinned, prodding Harry's ribs. "Yeah, maybe once he actually starts acting instead of watching what's happening."

Harry stuck his tongue out at Draco, speaking in the same tone of voice. "And maybe you'll make it once you think before you act."

Remus snorted, suddenly freezing and whispering in Sirius' ear before he quickly dashed back inside. Sirius watched him leave for a moment before accepting Harry's offer to team up against Draco and Arcturus in a mock game of Quidditch.

  
_**§§§§§§** _

  
"Dragon! No, no! Wyrm! What do you mean no? Wyvern?"

Arcturus threw his arms up in the air in exasperation, and Harry drummed on his cheek before clapping his hands together.

"Dragon _pox_?"

Arcturus pointed at Harry, before rounding on Lucius. "See, your son got it, you were just railing on about different giant scaled things!"

"You made a go-on motion!"

"Yes, go on with the word!"

Draco was in fits of giggles as the two men squabbled, both looking ridiculous with their hair down and braided - courtesy of Narcissa, who was now working on Sirius' hair - and decked out in ridiculous looking onesies that Sirius and Remus had bought them from some Muggle shop. There was a knock at the door, and Lucius froze for a moment before looking at Narcissa. She bit her lip, looking down at Sirius' hair, glancing at the door as the knock resounded again.

"Dobby!"

The elf _crack!_ ed into existence in front of them, and Harry absently waved as he read the card that Remus had passed him from their deck of charades cards. "Hey, Moony, what does this mean?"

Remus beamed before beckoning Harry down, whispering in his ear as Narcissa told the house elf to have the guest wait in the foyer. She wrapped a band around his braid before standing, the sound of harsh whispers coming from the foyer. There was another knock at the door, and everyone paused as they heard Narcissa hiss "Oh, just go!" before opening the door again.

"Evening."

Harry squinted at the man standing in the doorway, looking at Sirius to see his mouth hanging open, Arcturus standing and putting his hand on Sirius' shoulder, looking grim. Harry swung his head back towards the man, looking at Sirius again. "Is that your...brother?"

Lucius was noticeably drawn back into the couch, and Sirius sprang to his feet, moving to dash towards the man. "YOU MOTHERF-"

Remus dragged him back down, covering his mouth, everyone staring at the newcomer but Harry and Draco, who were markedly confused. Narcissa reentered to see everyone staring, Sirius clearly fuming, Alex trailing behind her.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake. Harry, Draco, this is Regulus, Sirius' little brother, Reg, my sons."

Harry stood, offering his hand to Regulus even as Sirius hissed "Don't touch him!" at his godson. Regulus shook Harry's hand, smiling slightly. "Charmed."

Draco followed Harry's example, Lucius stiffening on the couch as his elder son shook hands with his cousin.

"Regulus..."

Regulus looked at Arcturus, swallowing heavily. "Granddad."

"Regulus. Why did you never write me? You know you can't hide from me, what's wrong with you, avoiding your own grandfather, twelve years and no owl, no Floo call? Your mother would be ashamed."

Arcturus strode over to his youngest grandson, embracing him tightly as Sirius' mouth fell open. Regulus smiled slightly, hugging Arcturus back before walking over to Sirius.

"Free blow?"

Sirius surged up, drawing back his fist, slowly dropping it and grabbing his brother by the shoulders, staring at his face, his hands balling up again, fists tapping against Regulus' shoulders. "What happened?"

"I defected. I realised you were right, and I found out something awful, and I defected. But there's no honourable discharge from being a Death Eater. The only way out is death. His or ours. He stuck around too long, so I had to go."

Sirius was quiet again, breaking into a sob before hugging Regulus tightly. Harry frowned, looking at Draco, whispering. "What's a Death Eater?"

Draco froze, clearing his throat. "It's, uh...it's...ask someone else."

Harry frowned more, and Narcissa emerged from the kitchen with Alex, the two levitating a large table of desserts into the room, setting it in the centre. 

Harry perked up at seeing Alex, bouncing over to them, Draco right beside him, the two children excitedly chattering, asking for stories and hugs. Alex just laughed, holding up their hands to shush the boys, reaching into their robes to pull out two small cages. Harry whooped as he saw his favourite Puffskein from his Occlumency lessons, Draco cooing at the little fuzzball, letting it out onto his hand. Harry's was already perched on his head, happily humming as the boy hugged Alex in thanks.

The party returned to intense charades, guessing between moutfuls of cake, brownies, pies, pudding, and the like. Regulus read his card and rubbed his hands together before pushing his sleeves up, clearly excited about his card. Harry's eyes were caught by the bright red mark on his left arm, and as the hour mounted towards midnight, Arcturus, Sirius, and Remus retreated upstairs to sleep and Narcissa and Lucius had to drag a half asleep Draco up to bed, so Harry took the opportunity to make his way towards Regulus, Alex having been passed out on the couch for at least an hour already, leg on the floor beside a half-empty bottle of Firewhiskey, snoring away with a blanket half over their body.

"Regulus?"

Regulus looked at him, glancing back at the row of stockings, nodding at a small pink one on the very far edge of the mantelpiece. "Who's Dan?"

"Dan?"

Harry furrowed his brows, looking around for his parents, beckoning them over as they came down the stairs.

"What's wrong?"

Harry pointed at the tiny stocking, repeating Regulus' inquiry. "Who's Dan?"

Narcissa's mouth opened and closed, and she swallowed. "I, uh...Harry, you know how when people are pregnant, the babies are in their tummy, right?"

"Of course." Harry nodded, remembering seeing a few pregnant women walking around Privet Drive while he did yard work.

Narcissa sat down on the floor, pulling Harry down to sit with her. Lucius instinctively sat beside his wife, and Regulus slowly sat behind Harry. Narcissa took Harry's hands in hers, biting her lip for a moment.

"And you know that sometimes the baby isn't born?"

Harry nodded again. His aunt had gotten pregnant when he was about five, and the whole house had been in uproar about the new Dursley. Harry had actually been included in the celebration, and he regarded it as one of the few times he was happy at the Dursleys, as he was allowed to sleep on the couch. But after a few months, his aunt had come home crying and he was returned back to the cupboard, a blocked memory preceding it.

"Well, Harry," Narcissa paused, and Lucius rubbed her back. "I was...fighting one day, the war was still going on, this was just after you had killed the Dark Lord, and things weren't fixed over night, there were still problems. This...one group, they targeted families like ours, they essentially ambushed your father and I, Draco was still a baby. And-"

She choked as her throat closed up, and Harry climbed into her lap, hugging her tightly, resting his head against her neck. "You don't have to tell me more, Mum."

She held him tightly, and Regulus cleared his throat. "I'll be going, then."

Harry's eyes opened, and he jumped up as Regulus headed towards the door.

"Wait! I have a question to ask you!" Regulus turned, and Harry pointed at his arm. "Why do you and Dad have matching tattoos?"

Regulus and Lucius met eyes, and Lucius sighed heavily. "It's a long story, Harry."

"I'm not tired," Harry said, resisting the urge to rub at his eyes. Regulus smiled slightly, and sat back down in front of the fireplace, quietly explaining to Harry the ideals of the majority of the Black family, and Harry froze, looking between his parents and Regulus, and Regulus held up a hand.

"Harry, listen, it's easier to go along with what you know is wrong when it's the majority and all you've been told for your entire life. It takes some serious balls to realise you're wrong and reject what you've known. Especially when you've committed to it. Sirius is a Gryffindor for a reason, he took in everything he learnt from our parents and threw it out the window. I wasn't strong enough for that until it was thrown into my face that the path I chose wasn't what I wanted. Unfortunately, it was about eight months after I had given my service, my life to the Dark Lord."

"Voldemort?"

Regulus smiled slightly, nodding. "Yeah, Wormyport. Anyhow, this mark, this is the Dark Mark. It's the mark of the Dark Lord's followers. It's red right now, I presume because he's not around, but when he was active it was black. It let us summon him, let him summon us. We had to do whatever he said, or he'd torture us, or kill us if we were lucky. He treated his followers worse than his enemies."

Harry frowned, nodding. "But you defected, and that's why you're okay."

"That's why I'm still alive, yes. Okay is a different thing."

Harry looked at his father, who sighed, closing his eyes. "And you, you also defected right?"

"No."

Harry smiled before he realised what Lucius had said, his breath stopping for a moment as he scrabbled backwards. "W-what?"

Lucius looked up at Harry, face haggard and full of shame. "I never defected, Harry. I'm sorry. It took Eridanus to realise he was wrong, I was wrong. I bought my way out of Azkaban. I worked for the man who took Lily and James Potter for you. I'm part of the reason as to why you were sent to the Dursleys. Not even your mother could convince me otherwise in the darkest of my days. I'm sorry. You're allowed to hate me. I'd understand."

Harry held his head in his hands, shaking his head rapidly. "But you can't be bad, you're my dad, and you love me, and Draco."

"Bad people can do good things and good people can do bad things. The world isn't black and white, it's shades of grey."

Harry lifted his head, tears shining in his eyes behind his round glasses. "You said you realised it was all wrong though." Lucius nodded, and Harry nodded more aggressively. "You're still good then, it's okay. Regulus realised he was wrong, he's good, you realised so you're good too!"

"There's not really such a thing as good people, Harry."

Harry shook his head harder, his glasses almost flying off. He shoved them back up, standing. "No, you're good. I promise."

Lucius didn't respond, and Narcissa stood, pulling her husband up, looking at the clock. She glanced at Regulus, who was silently watching the exchange between father and son. "You're welcome to take a spare room upstairs any time, you know that, right?"

He stood, the smallest hint of a smile gracing his features. "I'll take you up for tonight."

He made his way up the stairs, and Narcissa looked at Harry, who was shaking slightly, putting her hand on his shoulder. "I think it's time we all head to bed, alright, Harry?"

Harry nodded slightly, and she guided him up the stairs, Lucius close behind her. They tucked him in, and Narcissa sat on his bed, quietly singing to him until he fell asleep, remaining for a few moments to kiss his forehead and blow out the light before joining her husband in bed. For the first time in a decade, she slept through the night on Christmas, only awoken the next day by the sound of breaking glass and Draco and Harry yelling in unison that Sirius had done it.


End file.
